workforce
ACI: What are some key issues older trans
and gender-diverse people face when
accessing community care, and that you
hope this will help to address?
JM: Trans and gender-diverse people
– like the larger population of lesbian,
gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex (LGBTI)
people – experience discrimination
[throughout] their lives. So when they need
to access aged-care services, there’s still
that inbuilt fear of possible discrimination
from health professionals. Sometimes
they, themselves, may limit their ability to
choose and access services because of
that discrimination they’ve experienced.
There are issues of feeling safe, particularly
in one’s home, when somebody comes to
visit and [concern] about people making
judgements regarding one’s gender or
sexual orientation.
How does the project begin to tackle
some of these issues?
Better LGBTI care
RDNS program aims to make
its staff more aware of issues
that may affect many trans
and gender-diverse people.
Jaklina Michael interviewed by Dallas Bastian
A
fter facing discrimination throughout
their lives, many older trans and
gender-diverse people fear they will
encounter more of the same when accessing
care services in the community.
This is one of the issues Royal District
Nursing Service (RDNS) diversity manager
Jaklina Michael will try to address through
a new project.
The work aims to build the knowledge
of community nursing and aged-care staff
and their capacity for working with trans
and gender-diverse people.
The Sidney Myer Fund and the Gay and
30 agedcareinsite.com.au
Lesbian Foundation of Australia board of
directors announced $15,000 of funding
for the project, as part of the Sidney Myer
Fund Poverty and Disadvantage Small
Grants Program.
This project will support the further
implementation of the RDNS Diversity
Framework 2012–17, which was set up to
meet the needs of clients and carers with
diverse requirements and from diverse
backgrounds.
Michael sat down with Aged Care Insite
to discuss the project’s aims and how it
hopes to achieve them.
We conducted an organisation-wide LGBTI
self-assessment to determine how well we
are catering for those population groups.
We were able to find some good things
we’re doing at RDNS in making sure we’re
providing equitable services. [But] we also
found gaps in our systems [and identified]
some improvements we need to make.
There were recommendations specific
to trans and gender-diverse people that
were highlighted for greater awareness,
particularly around the nursing needs
associated with wound management,
continence and other aged-care issues,
such as dementia.
What are some of the unique aspects of
caring for older trans or gender-diverse
people that professionals should know?
We in Australia don’t know how many trans
and gender-diverse people we have in our
community. We don’t collect that data at
RDNS either. We do know anecdotally,
through our staff, that we provide services
to trans and gender-diverse people.
When you don’t collect data about a
particular population group characteristics,
they become a hidden group. But when
somebody does disclose, and wishes to
disclose, we need to have policies around
how we deal with that disclosure and
privacy so that we can address their needs.
I think nurses and aged-care staff are
doing the best they possibly can, in a system
where there is a lack of policy on this topic
and a lack of good practice samples. So
there is much room for improvement.
We’re looking at two different types of
population groups. One is people who have