Clare Freeman, Executive Director of the Dr. Bob Kemp Centre for Hospice Palliative Care and member of the team who developed the recently released collection of ground-breaking online resources entitled, 鈥淭wo-Spirit(2S) and LGBTQ+: Proud, Prepared, and Protected鈥� () is adamant that the 2SLGBTQ+ community knows their rights, has access to the resources they need and does not experience discrimination at the end of life.
The Proud, Prepared, and Protected program has been developed by members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, representing over 40 Canadian organizations as well as individuals who have lived experience as caregivers in multiple settings including the home, long-term care facilities and hospices.
According to Clare Freeman, everyone needs to communicate the type of end-of-life care they want and to appoint a substitute decision-maker who can represent and advocate for them should they be unable to speak for themselves or navigate the healthcare system. She notes that this is particularly important for any community member already at risk for discrimination, such as members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community who are vulnerable to prejudice in the form of homophobia and transphobia.
鈥淥ften times in our community we are not thinking about being vulnerable at end of life and that that includes homophobia and transphobia. If you can鈥檛 speak for yourself, you become vulnerable to prejudice so you want to make sure that not only does your healthcare provider know what you want but also your substitute decision maker needs to be appointed who can be your advocate. These are really important issues that this work addresses and it鈥檚 been designed by our community. I want to make sure that every person in the 2SLGBTQ community can lean on these resources.鈥�
Ensuring that members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community do not experience prejudice requires an equity-based approach within every level of the healthcare system. Equity work for end-of-life and palliative care supports the fundamental values of palliative care including dignity and compassion, and requires proactive training and implementation be in place for all members of the healthcare team including volunteers.
鈥淭hose who are doing work in long-term care or in palliative care need to start looking at doing an equity-based approach. This is long overdue. Just speaking as someone who is from the queer community, every day of our lives we deal with certain aspects of discrimination whether it is subtle or not. I really hate to think of myself or my partner or one of my trans friends being in bed at a long-term care facility and being met with homophobia or transphobia. For all those folks who are doing palliative care who think that dignity and compassion are important, you cannot deny people for who they are. We need to make sure equity practices are in place鈥� Make your space welcoming to the 2SLGBTQ community.鈥�
4Access the Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+: Proud, Prepared, and Protected program at .
For more information contact the Virtual Hospice at Info [at] virtualhospice.ca.