Staff perceptions of barriers that lesbian, gay and bisexual residents face in long-term care settings

This study explores the difficulties that older lesbian, gay and bisexual residents may encounter when attempting to express their sexuality while living in long-term care facilities (LTCF), as perceived by staff. The sample was made up of 1714 staff members working in 152 Spanish long-term care ins...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sexualities 2022-01, Vol.25 (1-2), p.45-62
Main Authors: Villar, Feliciano, Serrat, Rodrigo, Celdrán, Montserrat, Fabà, Josep, Genover, Mònica, Martínez, Teresa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Barriers
Bisexuality
Gays & lesbians
Heterosexuality
Homophobia
Homosexuality
Lesbianism
Long term care insurance
Long term health care
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Older people
Residential institutions
Sexuality
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Summary:This study explores the difficulties that older lesbian, gay and bisexual residents may encounter when attempting to express their sexuality while living in long-term care facilities (LTCF), as perceived by staff. The sample was made up of 1714 staff members working in 152 Spanish long-term care institutions for older people. Answers to an open-ended question regarding barriers that older lesbian, gay and bisexual people living in residential institutions may face when attempting to express their sexuality were content-analysed. The results suggest that the barriers are almost exclusively caused by other people’s views on non-heterosexual issues, including both heterosexist assumptions (e.g. the lack of awareness of sexual diversity in LTC settings, something that is particularly frequent among care assistants) and homophobic attitudes and behaviours generally attributed by technical staff and managers to heterosexual residents. Practical and policy implications, which should take into account job role as a key factor, are discussed.
ISSN:1363-4607
1461-7382
DOI:10.1177/1363460719876808