Issues of Concern

Prioritise the Needs of the GLBTI community

Activity: Ranking Needs

1. Prioritise the needs in order of most important (1) to least important (6) for the group and

2. Explain why the need is important.

Reproduced with Permission

1 Health

Health is a high-priority need for the LGBTIQ+ community because they are more susceptible to health issues such as cancer and sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) due to a lack of LGBTIQ+ sensitive medical care which results in inadequate health care and less services for treatment and prevention.

2 Education

The LGBTIQ+ community may have a higher rate of members who dropped out of school and inadequate academic achievements as a result of discrimination and isolation they feel at school or educational institutions. This also impacts on their employment opportunities as they are unable to get jobs that require a tertiary education.

3 Adequate Standard of Living

An adequate standard of living is not easily achieved by members of the LGBTIQ+ community as they are more likely to face homelessness as a result of their families rejecting them after coming out to them. If an individual who identifies as part of the LGBTIQ+ community is homeless, their other basic needs, such as food, water, clothing and shelter, are not going to be met.

4 Safety and Security

Individuals part of the LGBTIQ+ community are more likely to experience violence and discrimination due to the way they identify themselves. Safety and security are important to them because they often find themselves the victims of hate crimes, physical violence and discrimination.

5 Sense of Identity

An individual’s sense of identity represents their relationships, hobbies/interests and social activities. For individuals in the LGBTIQ+ community, their sense of identity is something they need to figure out how to deal with individually as well as part of their wider world.

6 Employment

There are anti-discriminatory laws in place in the workforce in order to help prevent discrimination in the workplace, specifically for the LGBTIQ+ community. Although these laws are federal law and enforceable by nature, people part of the LGBTIQ+ community still face discrimination if they are “out of the closet”.

1 Sense of Identity

Sense of Identity is the most important need for people in the GLBTI community. This need is especially important when a person is first ‘discovering’ their sexuality. In a society where being GLBTI is not incredibly common, they must have a strong sense of identity.

2 Health

As well as other people, health is essential for GLBTI community members. Due to this group being persecuted for who they are so often, their mental health may not be as strong as others. People in this community may also suffer other health issues due to not wanting to share details about their life with a doctor. The GLBTI community need good health to maintain a sustainable life.

3 Safety and Security

Safety and Security are very important especially since not all people are accepting of people in the GLBTI community. This group may be prone to both physical and verbal abuse, so they must surround themselves with people who make them feel loved. In doing so they will feel safe and secure, satisfying this specific need.

4 Adequate Standard of Living

This specific need is part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, meaning that just as all others do, the GLBTI community need an adequate standard of living. This may include proper housing, food and water. GLBTI people may also end up homeless due to their family not being accepting of them, causing a decline in their standard of living. An adequate standard of living will support other needs such as safety and security.

5 Employment

While employment is second last on the list, employment is a very important need for the GLBTI community. This community may face possible discrimination in the workplace due to who they are, and due to this, could be denied employment. A person in this community may also find it difficult to maintain employment due to mental health issues such as anxiety.

6 Education

Although this need is at the bottom of the list, education is still crucial to the GLBTI community. Young people from the GLBTI community may drop out of school early due to discrimination. Sexual education for non-straight relationships is very uncommon, and this form of education will need to be more prominent in the world for this specific need to be met for the GLBTI community.

3. Justify the ranking of the two most important needs.

4. Discuss the implications for the individual and wider society if these needs are not met.

3.

- The two most significant needs for individuals’ part of the LGBTIQ+ community are health and education. Health is the most important need for individuals who are part of the LGBTQ+ community because not only do they need basic healthcare that is available to everyone regardless of their sexual identification, the prevalence of diseases and health problems is significantly higher in the LGBTIQ+ community than heterosexual people. For example, Australian individuals who identified as bisexual/homosexual aged 16 and over, had an anxiety disorder (32%) in 2008, nearly two times higher than their heterosexual counterparts (14%) (ABS 2008) and individuals who identify as either homosexual or bisexual partook in the consumption of illicit drug use (42%) three times more than heterosexuals (14%). Therefore, achieving an adequate standard of health is a high priority need for LGBTIQ+ identifying individuals as they face more inequalities in health, compared to their heterosexual counterparts.

Education is also a high priority need for members of the LGBTIQ+ community because studies show that LGBTIQ+ students make up half of the students who choose to drop out of high school (8% of LGBTIQ+ community vs 16% of heterosexual community), (NCVER, 2019). LGBTIQ+ students tend to drop out of school due to being bullied and harassed because of their sexual identity. According to the Writing Themselves (2010) 80% of individuals who were part of the LGBTIQ+ community faced verbal and physical homophobic abuse as well as exclusion from peers in their school community. Receiving education (specifically sex education) is important for the LGBTIQ+ community because without sex education that is specifically tailored to suit their needs, they can be more prone to partaking in risky behaviours such as unsafe sex which increases their chances contracting STI’s, (73% of gay and bisexual men account for all new accounts for HIV diagnoses) (ACON, n.d.). Thus, receiving education is of utmost importance to individuals in the LGBTIQ+ community, as they are over-represented in high-school drop-out rates.

4.

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being (WHO, 1948). For individuals in the LGBTIQ+ community, it is difficult to achieve a state of good overall health due to them facing institutionalised discrimination frequently. Not only will the individual have personal implications due to their negative health, it will also impact their wider world, such as family and friends. Individuals in the LGBTIQ+ community have a higher risk of committing suicide and suicidal ideation with recent figures indicating that LGBTIQ+ young people (between the ages of 16 and 27) are 5 times more likely to attempt suicide (The Age, 2019) and LGBTIQ+ young people (aged 16 over) are 6 times more likely to have suicide ideation (The National LGBTI Health Alliance, 2020 ). If an individual who identifies as being part of the LGBTIQ+ community expresses their intention to commit suicide with their family and their friends, then the family and friends will have to deal with the repercussions of that knowledge and the grief that follows if suicide is actioned. The family of the individual would want their loved one to receive counselling, but they may not be able to fully support them as counselling services are very expensive. If mental health is left untreated, then the individual may be unable to work which then means that they would have to rely on Centrelink benefits for the basic necessities such as food, shelter and clothing. Increased amounts of people on Centrelink will have implications on society as taxpayers will have to pay more tax in order to give the Government the money required for Centrelink funds.

If an individual in the LGBTIQ+ community chooses not to continue with their secondary education, it will have an impact on their employment opportunities, as they will not be able to get high paying jobs which require tertiary education, which consequently affects their wellbeing negatively due to them not being able to satisfy their needs as well as their wants. As LGBTIQ+ individuals make up half the students who drop out of school (NCVER, 2019) due to discrimination, they will most likely get low-paying, unfulfilling jobs and will often get Centrelink payments in order to survive. The implications that this has on society is very similar to that of when LGBTIQ+ individuals who have a poor quality of health, meaning that taxpayers will often have to pay more tax to equate due to the high demand of funding needed.

Alternate Response

3. The specific need Sense of Identity (specifically gender and sexual identity) is the most important specific need for the GLBTI community. Especially in the process of a person ‘discovering’ their sexuality, their sense of identity needs to be quite high for an adequate life. According to Vandenbroek 2018, in the 2014 census, approximately 522 800 Australian citizens (2.22% [of the 2014 population]) identified as a sexual orientation other than straight. As the GLBTI community is a minority group, it is incredibly important that they have a strong sense of identity. Being a part of the GLBTI community may also conflict with religion. A report by Rosenstreich (2013) includes a quote saying:

“Knowing what was facing me religion-wise and with my family, I was pretty suicidal between the ages of about 16 and 19 … Not so much because of people’s homophobia but because of feeling totally trapped between a religion/family that didn’t accept homosexuality and being who I was” (p.3).

This proves that a poor sense of identity for someone in the GLBTI community may cause disastrous situations.

Health is the second most important need for the GLBTI community. Homosexual men are very likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases, which is a very serious health issue for them. For example, Judson et al. (1980) found that homosexual men were much more likely to contract the STD ‘gonorrhea’ than heterosexual men (30.31% vs. 19.83%). This shows how crucial it is for homosexual men to practice safe sexual behaviour. As well as sexual health, mental health is also very important. Rosenstreich (2013) found that “at least 36.2% of trans and 24.4% of gay, lesbian and bisexual Australians met the criteria for experiencing a major depressive episode in 2005, compared with 6.8% of the general population” (p.3). These mental health issues experienced by the GLBTI community can also have an impact on the specific need of employment. Funk (2000) found that poor mental health can have a negative impact on “employee productivity, performance and absenteeism”. Through these statistics, it proves that both sexual and mental health are very important to the GLBTI community.

4. If both the needs of sense of identity and health are not met, there may be implications for both the person in the GLBTI community, and wider society such as family members. Sense of Identity can be described as the ability to know who you are and what your purpose is at all times. Not having a strong sense of identity could result in poor circumstances such as a loss in self-confidence, loneliness and social anxiety. Through this issues, both the person in the GLBTI community and their family may be impacted. A low self-confidence can bring upon issues such as depression, which can possibly result in suicide. This can have a large impact on the family and friends due to the loss one of their family members. Such impacts on these can include the grieving of their loss and a possible feeling of guilt of not accepting the GLBTI person for who they are. The need of sense of identity not being met can have dramatic impacts on both the individual and the wider society.

Health is another specific need that can have serious implications for the person in the GLBTI community and wider society. Specifically for the transgender community, a poor mental health can lead to issues such as gender dysphoria. An article by Health Direct (2019) states that gender dysphoria is “the discomfort a person feels with how their body is perceived and allocated a gender by other people” (n.p.). Issues like gender dysphoria can impact the community as they may need to cater for this group of people. One example of doing so includes the relabeling of bathrooms. A poor sexual health may also impact both the individual and the wider community. According to the Multicultural HIV and Hepatitis Service (n.d), there has been approximately 970 000 deaths related to HIV. This is a great concern for homosexual men as HIV/AIDS can be quite common within their group. As well as it being an issue for the individual, wider society may be impacted. A rise in cases of HIV/AIDS, medical clinics will need to account for this and be able to help and support homosexual men with this issue. This proves that a poor mental and sexual health can lead to impacts on the individual and wider society.

Access to Services

See Table in CAFS textbook

All individuals need to access various resources throughout their lives in order to maintain their wellbeing. Factors affecting access to resources can include any circumstance or issue that prevents or limits a person or group from accessing services or other resources that they might need. Such resources might be available to them, but for various reasons they might find it difficult or impossible to access them. Not everyone has equal access to services. Not surprisingly, more services are available in urban areas.

Characteristics

Consider the impact of specific characteristics on access to services individuals who are members of the GLBTI community:

• Age

• Gender

• Level of education

• First language spoken

• Culture

• Socioeconomic status

• Type of disability

Aspects of the Service

Resources

Resources necessary to access services. For homeless people, a variety of services and support structures are available, however, the personal resources available to these individuals such as time, money, energy and knowledge, will affect their access to these services.

For each of the following explain how they can assist an individual to access the services that they - need. Give an example to support your ideas.

• • Time

  • Energy

  • Money

  • Knowledge