JustUs Health and Training to Serve Join Forces
Originally Published:11/26/2018
JustUs Health and Training to Serve are excited to announce that Training to Serve’s nationally recognized LGBT aging curriculum is moving to JustUs Health.
Since 2008, Training to Serve has worked to improve the quality of life of LGBT people as they age. The program offers dynamic, culturally-responsive trainings on LGBT aging and dementia to healthcare and other service providers. Training to Serve’s work has benefited thousands of LGBT older adults and family caregivers.
“Health equity for LGBT older adults – and for older adults living with HIV – is an urgent and growing concern,” said David Fey, Interim Executive Director of JustUs Health. “Integrating Training to Serve into our education and advocacy work, as well as the services we provide, will expand the reach of this innovative and successful program.”
According to JustUs Health’s Voices of Health survey, thirty percent of LGBT people age 50 or older have had to teach their provider about LGBT identities in order to receive appropriate care. Many health systems simply lack the knowledge to care for LGBT folks as they age.
In the groundbreaking Trans Aging Study conducted by the University of Minnesota and JustUs Health, 100 percent of transgender older adults who were interviewed expressed deep concerns about their treatment in services for older adults. Many reported that they would choose to end their own life rather than live in a long-term care facility or nursing home.
Forty-nine percent of JustUs Health’s clients living with HIV are age 50 or older. As they age, they have health needs similar to other older adults. However, many health providers who work with older adults don’t have good knowledge about HIV, and JustUs Health is already seeing instances of HIV stigma as people living with HIV navigate these systems.
“JustUs Health has the close connections with the healthcare systems we need to reach and the research capabilities to measure needs and impacts,” said Rajean Moone, Executive Director of Training to Serve. “Training to Serve is thrilled to join the JustUs Health family.”
JustUs Health envisions a Minnesota where people from diverse gender, sexual, and cultural communities experience health and wellness in powerfully inclusive environments. JustUs Health’s founding organizations – Minnesota AIDS Project and Rainbow Health Initiative – have decades of experience working to stop HIV in Minnesota, and advancing the health and wellness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities. We continue to build on this work through advocacy, education, research, and services.
Training to Serve’s mission is to improve the quality of life of LGBT people as they age. TTS has provided education to over 12,000 aging service providers including long-term care facilities, home care nurses, hospital social workers, county social services agencies, and college students in public health and health care disciplines. Through this work, TTS ensures LGBT older adults experience welcoming services and support.