Afternoon Sessions
During the afternoon portion of our training day, our goal will be to offer a deeper look into the unique health and human service needs and issues of LGBTQ people and families; and to provide professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to alleviate these barriers and provide services in a more competent and inclusive manner.
We invite providers to join us for one of five concurrent break-out sessions tailored to specific professional content areas and facilitated by experts in their fields. The core content areas on which our afternoon sessions will focus include:
MEDICINE/HEALTHCARE
The training will provide an opportunity for health service providers to learn about creating inclusive, welcoming, and respectful health care environments and health delivery approaches for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Discrimination and stigma directed against the LGBT community is the principal source of health disparities among LGBT populations. LGBT people, in addition to having the same basic health needs as the general population, experience health disparities and barriers related to accessing care and many avoid or delay care or receive inappropriate or inferior care because of perceived or real stigma and discrimination by health care providers and institutions. Participants will receive resources, strategies, and concrete tools to help reduce the incidence of health disparities and create a welcoming care environment for LGBT people. In addition, a Rochester-area advocate and expert in the provision of cutting edge screening/treatment of anal dysplasia & cancer for gay and bisexual men will overview her work, talk about her experience(s) in advocating for LGBT health and challenge providers to put principles into practice in ensuring that LGBT patients receive the best and most complete healthcare possible.
FOSTER/ADOPTION SERVICES
Child welfare agencies across NYS have been discovering that folks from the LGBTQ community can make wonderful (i.e.: effective!) foster/adoptive parents - but how to reach out to them, and then what? This session for the child welfare professional will help you in reaching out to the LGBT community in your efforts to enlist some of the best applicants for your foster care/adoption program. Let's start at the beginning. What do you need to know to begin developing a proficiency in working with LGBT applicants? How LGBT friendly/ welcoming is your agency? How can you make it more attractive? What supports can you offer to certified LGBT families? Is there support already available somewhere? We will dispel the mysteries, give you concrete information and help you understand the basics in your efforts to tap into this pool of families - and they are everywhere! Your community/county is not as small as you may think!
AGING SERVICES
LGBT people come in all shapes, sizes…and AGES. The issues of LGBT seniors have, however, long gone unaddressed by organizations and agencies that serve the needs of senior communities. This workshop will discuss the ways in which working clients who are LGBT seniors are the same and the ways in which they are different from working within heterosexual systems. What are the challenges LGBT clients experience that heterosexual clients do not? How can the needs of LGBT seniors be better met when they attempt to access services and care? This workshop help to address these and other questions. This session will also feature a concentration on the challenges faced by older and/or handicapped clients---especially those that are living in residential care settings. Key learning outcomes for this session will include a deeper understanding of LGBT seniors as clients, the diversity among and between LGBT clients, respect for all clients as individuals regardless of self-identification and a grounding in the fact that despite their potentially unique challenges, LGBT clients want the same things as all clients: respect, support, positive regard and the ability to control as much of their destiny as possible.
EDUCATION/CHILDREN & YOUTH SERVICES
The unique and complex needs, issues & risk of youth who identify as LGBT have been much in the news and on the minds of providers who serve them of late. This interactive workshop, facilitated by two Rochester-area professionals with direct experience working with LGBT teens, will serve as a basic primer on understanding exactly who LGBT youth are, the issues they face, why they present as higher risk for certain physical and mental health concerns, as well as strategies for providers to better serve LGBT youth. After this workshop, participants will: (1.) have a better understanding of what it means to be a young LGBT person, including basic language, concepts and terminology relevant to LGBT lives, (2.) be able to identify some of the pressing issues facing LGBT youth, and (3.) be able to identify and demonstrate strategies for providing better, more sensitive and inclusive services to LGBT youth.
MENTAL HEALTH, SUBSTANCE USE & OTHER HUMAN SERVICES
This workshop will focus on health disparities present for LGBTQI individuals in the area of mental health and psychiatric care. We will explore these inequalities and differences from multiple levels, from national policy decisions to the in-the-office provider. Additionally we will consider the unique roadblocks and barriers faced by LGBTQI individuals as they make contact with mental health/psychiatric systems. We will also reconsider the reasons for the well-known statistics of elevated rates of suicide, substance abuse and depression among LGBTQI individuals and frame these concerns within the context of the minority stress model. We will then explore how the impact of minority stress affects the care that LBGTQI individuals receive and the disparities they face. Finally, we will consider best practices and opportunities for intervention within systems.
Facilitators for our afternoon sessions will include:
MEDICINE/HEALTHCARE
Maureen Kelly, Vice President for Education, Training & Communications at Planned Parenthood in Ithaca, NY, has trained locally, nationally and internationally for over 16 years. Her published work includes her book “My Body, My Rules,” articles for the SIECUS Report, American Journal of Sexuality Education, Advocates for Youth, and chapters in "Trans Forming Families: Real Stories About Transgendered Loved Ones," "Sexual Lives: Theories and Realities of Human Sexualities,” and “Encyclopedia of Africa and the Americas.” Kelly's media work includes a documentary film and a TV commercial that garnered five international honors, including a Telly Award. Kelly is a Ladder to Leadership Fellow through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and designated a Certified Family Life Educator by the National Council on Family Relations and Certified Sexuality Counselor by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists. Kelly is the founder of Planned Parenthood’s Out for Health: LGBT Health & Wellness program.
Terry Schwartz, NP has been active in meeting the health and advocacy needs of LGBT patients since 1998. She has been on the Speakers Bureau of the GAGV as a straight ally for ten years and has participated in the LGBT education of nursing and medical students. Over the past six years she has developed two practices in Rochester for the diagnosis and treatment of anal dysplasia, a precancerous condition caused by the human papillomavirus. These practices serve over 900 patients throughout New York State, most of whom are gay and bisexual men. Deeply concerned that gay and bisexual men are not being protected from anal cancer as conscientiously as women are protected from cervical cancer, she has educated doctors and nurse practitioners in the screening and treatment procedures, is an investigator for a study of the Gardasil HPV vaccine for HIV-positive men, and has provided testimony to the NYS legislature. Her message to end the silence regarding sexual orientation that exists between too many providers and their GLBT patients is: "Ask....Tell"..
FOSTER/ADOPTION SERVICES
Fred Elia is a child welfare trainer/consultant with over 30 years' professional experience concentrating in the recruitment, training and support of foster/adoptive parents. He is also president of “A Thousand Moms” (www.athousandmoms.org), a statewide community organization project in support of LGBT/Q youth in New York's child welfare system. Fred grew up in foster care with a younger brother in Schenectady, NY. He began working with the child welfare community in NYS to recruit LGBT foster/adoptive parents about 20 years ago. Ten years ago he organized the founding of the NYC LGBT Foster Care Coalition to bring together the LGBT community with the child welfare community in order to better serve children/youth in the foster care/adoption system. He now shares his foster family homestead (including The Foster Care Garden -- a welcoming space for all connected to the Child Welfare System), with his partner of 16 years, Dave.
AGING SERVICES
Kitty Moran is a married lesbian with two grown daughters---and is currently in the process of changing their family’s last name to Wolfsong. She and her wife, Debbie, are both licensed clinical social workers. In her private practice, Kitty works with many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender clients of all ages. Kitty is also an active member of Rainbow SAGE, a Rochester-area organization for LGBT seniors.
EDUCATION/CHILDREN & YOUTH SERVICES
Jessica Cohen (pictured on right) has been the GAGV Youth Services Director since January 2008. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Health Science with a concentration in Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counseling from SUNY Brockport. Jessica has worked with adolescents in a variety of settings, including residential and outpatient chemical dependency treatment settings. Jessica currently sits on the Board for Rochester's chapter of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network), and continues to advocate daily for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth.
Allegra Anka (pictured on left) is the LGBT Health Specialist for AIDS Care, an HIV/AIDS service organization in Rochester and is directly involved with LGBT youth services in the Rochester area. When she isn’t talking to queer people about loving, educating and empowering themselves, or to health/human service providers about how to better serve LGBT & queer communities, she likes talking about queer life, love and sex as powerful vehicles for resistance and change; and how they can make the world a better place for everyone.
MENTAL HEALTH, SUBSTANCE USE & OTHER HUMAN SERVICES
MENTAL HEALTH, SUBSTANCE USE & OTHER HUMAN SERVICES
Dr. Dennis Foley is a Clinical Psychologist in independent practice, who specializes in LGBTQI concerns, chronic illness (HIV/AIDS, cancer), and grief and bereavement. Prior to entering private practice Dr. Foley had been on the full-time faculty at the University of Rochester Medical Center. There he was the Associate Training Director of Psychology Training Programs and coordinated the Department of Psychiatry’s multicultural and diversity training efforts. Currently he is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry (Psychology) and remains active in clinical supervision and teaching.
