Older LGBTQ people have lived in times where their sexualities and gender identities have been criminalized, pathologized and often not socially accepted. But during their lives, there have also been major shifts, with movements, meeting places and legal rights emerging. Now, the first open generations of LGBTQ people are reaching retirement age and becoming in need of elderly care. Research shows that many older LGBTQ people are worried about how they will be treated in care services and about the state of knowledge there.
The newly published book ‘Queer elderly care?’ is aimed at people in elderly care and others who meet older people in their work. Anna Siverskog, elderly researcher, has written the book in collaboration with RFSL Stockholm. The book provides knowledge about the history of LGBTQ and an insight into how elderly care is organized. It also provides an overview of the state of research on LGBTQ aging, including health, social networks, dementia and sexuality. The book also features the voices of LGBTQ seniors throughout, who share their experiences of eldercare and of ageing as an LGBTQ person.
- "When I have interviewed older LGBTQ people, they often worry about what will happen the day they need care. The concern is about how they will be treated as transgender or gay or bisexual, by care workers or by other residents if they need to move to a nursing home," says Anna Siverskog.
In her latest study, she interviews older LGBTQ people who receive home care or live in nursing homes, and some of those voices are also included in the book. Some have good experiences of care, while others have not dared to come out, experienced a lack of privacy, or completely lost contact with a gay community.
Jo Tengblad Söder at RFSL Stockholm is working on the project ’Glitterra med gråa hår’ (Glitter with gray hair), within which the book was created. The project is now continuing for the second year. She says that it can be wonderful to grow older and become more wise and secure in oneself. But we live in a youth culture that is also strong in the LGBTI movement. Youthfulness and young adults are often the norm, while the experiences of older people are not always made visible or taken into account. There is also a risk that the rights of older LGBTI people are forgotten.
- Within RFSL Stockholm, we have seen that we need to work more to gather knowledge about the health and living conditions of older LGBTI people and disseminate it, not least to the elderly care services that many older LGBTI people are worried about meeting in fear of being treated badly.
The book will be released on April 26, 2022 at 16-18 at RFSL Stockholm, Alsnögatan 7, registration to: in**@************sl.se
Contact details:
Anna Siverskog (author): on************@**.see 0703-576367
Jo Tengblad Söder (RFSL Stockholm, responsible for the Glittra project): yes***************@************sl.se
Title: Queer elderly care? Meeting older LGBTQ people in health and social care
Author: Anna Siverskog
Publisher: RFSL Stockholm ISBN: 978-91-89462-63-2
Photos: private
