Photo: L-R Graham Douglas-Meyer, Meredith Tavener, Michelle Hunter, Jude Comfort, Rita Freijah, Graham Lovelock.

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The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Retirement Association Incorporated (GRAI) launched their groundbreaking research project at Curtin University of Technology late last month.

The social research project aims to improve the conditions of older GLBTI people living in supported accommodation services by working directly with the aged care industry.

As part of the 12-month initial stage of the study, a mail survey will be sent to every nursing home and retirement village in the state and an advisory board of industry professionals has been established.

‘What we’re aiming to come up with is best practice guidelines for the industry and have them adopt a more inclusive approach to housing GLBTI people,’ said the project’s research leader, Jude Comfort.

Once the best practice guidelines are created, it is hoped service providers will be able to use them as a benchmark to assess how their services cater to the needs of GLBTI people.

Although the study will be the first of its kind in Western Australia, evidence from interstate and overseas research has suggested that older GLBTI people can be hesitant to reveal their sexuality.

‘We have anecdotal evidence that GLBTI people are often a hidden group in aged care facilities and have problems coming out when they are in aged care, or they have to go back into the “closet” so they are not discriminated against,’ said Ms Comfort.

While several specialist GLBTI aged care facilities are already operating in the United States and an exclusively GLBTI retirement village is being planned for rural Victoria, Ms Comfort says this may not be a viable option for WA.

‘At the moment we’re going the way of trying to change and improve the mainstream agenda to make that more inclusive, rather than saying we want a GLBTI facility for ourselves.

‘I just don’t think that’s realistic at this point in time.’

The research is funded by a Lotterywest grant, secured by GRAI late last year.

It will be conducted by the Centre for Research on Ageing (CRA), the WA Centre for Health Promotion Research (WACHPR) on behalf of GRAI.

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