Let’s Get Better Together Conference to Focus on LGBTQ Health Equity and Access

The LGBTQ community disproportionately experiences barriers to health care services, which lead to worse outcomes in both mental and physical health overall. This year, an Arizona conference on LGBTQ health and human services will focus on the promotion of best practices within health care in order to eliminate disparities for this group.

A recent study shows that many within the LGBTQ community don’t feel comfortable discussing their sexual preferences and identity with their health care providers, ABC News reports. Fears of discrimination can deter LGBTQ individuals from seeking care, including completing recommended healthcare screenings.

And many within the community are ill equipped to understand how their sexuality or gender identity could impact health-related issues. Public school sex education is often brief and inconsistent, and largely leaves out LGBTQ health topics from the curriculum, Washington Post reports. From Tim’m West, executive director of the LGBTQ Institute at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta:

What if you are a boy in high school that knows you like boys, and you sit in a divided room and listen to a teacher explain how not to have sex with girls. You would be sitting there rolling your eyes, because that is not your issue. But you also haven’t been given any instructions on how to protect yourself should you experiment with a person of the same gender.

An annual conference in Arizona, Let’s Get Better Together, aims to tackle some of these issues regarding health access and equity in its upcoming conference, which is themed “Achieving Health Equity and Health Justice.” AZCentral reports that attendees this year will be able to engage in workshops that address health care best practices and resources for health care professionals.

Of special focus will be mental health services for LGBTQ youth. Recent surveys demonstrate that LGBTQ youth are more likely to consider and attempt suicide, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth.  From Let’s Get Better Together committee member Sam Castro:

LGBTQ- and gender-affirming health care is suicide prevention. [It] can make all the difference in showing that someone deserves and is worthy to live the normal life that everyone wants.

The event will be held on October 18 and 19 at the Harrah’s Ak-Chin Hotel and Casino in Maricopa.