Passionate discussion and advances in research and networking marked the success of the recent three-day national Health in Difference Conference in Sydney.
Chair of the organising body, National LGBT Health Alliance, Paul Martin said generations of social exclusion, stigma and discrimination had led to higher risk factors and poorer health outcomes in the community.
Several key community members represented West Australia across a spectrum of health issues for the 7th national conference.
Mental Health
WA Greens Senator Rachel Siewert engaged with a panel of experts on the state of social inclusion for the national queer community.
Senator Siewert was impressed by the level of engagement and range of topics covered at the conference, and the dedication of the organisers.
‘I sensed a lot of support for the LGBT Health Alliance and its ongoing work,’ she said.
Passionate about issues surrounding mental health, Senator Siewert said a more focused LGBT approach to health was still needed.
‘There is a long way to go to ensure the Government’s social inclusion rhetoric is matched by its actions,’ she said.
The health alliance re-analysed statistics that revealed gay, lesbian and bisexual people were twice as likely to develop high levels of psychological distress as their heterosexual counterparts.
While figures were not available for the gender and sex diverse demographic, the health alliance indicated that these numbers were likely to be even higher.
The senator proposed that health needs of the LGBT community should be separated from the mainstream community.
While the LGBT community was included in the government’s social inclusion agenda, Senator Siewert said much remained to be done around key health issues by the WA government.
Older Community
GLBTI Retirement Association Inc. (GRAI) Chairperson Jude Comfort praised the health conference and its inclusion of issues facing the aging community.
Comfort highlighted the level of isolation within this sector, noting a real lack of intergenerational interaction.
‘Where are our seniors … They are the very invisible part of our community, they came out at a time when it wasn’t very safe to come out, we know some of them have gone back into the closet,’ Comfort said.
While she acknowledged that some older people wouldn’t identify with the LGBT community, she said that research points to a growing number of people who want contact and perhaps don’t know how.
‘I would like to see more interaction between younger LGBT people and older people in the community,’ Comfort said.
The other prominent challenge would be addressing the needs of this group when overall funding for research and services wasn’t currently sufficient.
Comfort said a core challenge for GRAI would be changing the mentality of service providers to improve facilities and assistance for this hidden demographic.
At the time of publication GRAI was finalising recommendations for mainstream service providers that will shed light onto the needs of this neglected group.
Youth
Dani Wright from the Freedom Centre represented youth issues and presented a lecture on the unique approach taken by the Perth youth centre.
Wright said the youth-focused group worked to a prevention model which honed in on preventing cases of isolation through education.
The Freedom Centre acts as a meeting place for young LGBT people, equipped with resources to help promote equality through learning.
Finding new avenues for challenging homophobia in schools was another issue raised at the conference.
Wright said more work needed to be done on the national framework for queer education in schools.
Gender Diverse
In a move welcomed by the transgender community, a new government working group was initiated towards understanding the needs of the gender diverse community.
The Federal Government has agreed to review the aptly named Sex Files project paper and work with transgender groups.
Aram Hosie from the WA Gender Project was excited about the new working group created to address transgender issues encountered through government bureaucracy.
‘It’s really great; no federal government has ever looked at something like this,’ Hosie said.
‘Since releasing the Sex Files paper, we’ve been waiting to see the government reaction. It’s pleasing to see government recognition of the report.’
One of the biggest hurdles for the gender diverse community was gaining recognition of their gender identity. Surgery has been the determining factor in many cases for gaining legal recognition.
However, Hosie noted that surgery is often just not available.
‘Surgery has held people back… they go through the world looking like one thing, and their documents say another,’ Hosie said.
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Men’s health issues were also acknowledged at the conference with the inclusion of gay, bisexual and gender diverse men into the National Male Health Policy by the government.
While Mr Martin from the LGBT Health Alliance spoke graciously of all these moves forward, he also slammed the Federal Government over the increased level of support it offers other key equity groups such as women, seniors and regional communities, while ignoring the LGBT community.
‘Most equity groups have significant government infrastructure,’ Martin said, ‘including a named minister or parliamentary secretary, a national advisory group, a resourced departmental unit, a national strategy and one or more funded NGO peak bodies.
‘The LGBT community has none of this.’ Martin said.
According to re-analysed figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, members of the LGBT community are:
• Four times more likely to have ever been homeless
• Twice as likely to have no contact with family or no family to rely on for serious problems
• More likely to be a current smoker
• Twice as likely to have used illicit drugs
• More likely to have had a chronic condition in the last 12 months
• Twice as likely to have a high/very high level of psychological distress
Benn Dorrington
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