Victoria Nursing Group awarded Silver Award for welcoming LGBTQ people to their service.
MANY older LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people find themselves having to go ‘back in the closet’ when they enter supported living arrangements like nursing homes, but one group of care homes in Brighton and Hove are making sure that this isn’t the care for their residents.
Brighton-based LGBTQ charity Switchboard’s pioneering new LGBTQ Inclusion Award celebrates the first Nursing Home Group’s achievement of a Silver Award, joining the growing number of health and care settings across Sussex who have achieved an award for being welcoming to LGBTQ people.
Victoria Nursing Group are the first organisation of their kind of commit to making their service LGBTQ inclusive through a combination of training and making changes to their care homes, policies, and practices.
They have just been awarded a prestigious Silver Award by Switchboard for LGBTQ inclusion. This award means that their residents, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, will have a positive experience of their care and they will remain connected with the wider communities in the city.
There are an estimated one million LGBT+ people over the age of 55 in the UK. Evidence still suggests that older LGBTQ people feel unable to be open about their identities in health and social care settings.
Working closely with Switchboard, Victoria Nursing Group has confronted this issue in all three of its Hove-based homes by training over 75% of staff in LGBTQ Awareness and Inclusion, as well as introducing tools like pronoun badges and building links with LGBTQ services and support groups in the city. LGBTQ residents will now see their identities reflected in things like reading materials and posters, as well as being able to talk to staff about their experiences and their needs.
Emma Sheriff, Victoria Nursing Group’s Care Quality Director said; “We are delighted to be accredited the Silver level LGBTQ Inclusion Award. The award is important to us in terms of both our staff and residents recognising our commitment to equality and inclusion. The teams have worked extremely hard to achieve the Silver Inclusion Award. Staff have been incredibly supportive in assisting with the re-design of our equal opportunities monitoring form, coordinating training & speaking to staff about their understanding of our ‘preferred pronoun badges’.”
Daniel Cheesman, Switchboard’s CEO, added: “We are pleased to be able to award Victoria Nursing Group with the LGBTQ Inclusion Award and are encouraged to see how they have worked hard to involve staff and residents in making their homes LGBTQ inclusive. At Switchboard we are passionate about making positive changes for all LGBTQ people including those who are in their older years who will have experienced a time where it was illegal to be themselves. This makes working with organisations such as Victoria Nursing Group so special as it is making a real difference in the lives of many.”
BeefMince, the legendary London club night takes a trip to the seaside from its legendary home, The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, to fill The Rialto with its usual crowd full of hotties, beards, cubs, bears and lovers of a good party! Talking of hotties, the full BBW 2019 Committee will be there to make sure the evening lives up to its reputation for raunch, high quality dance music and a whole lot of fun!
SOME of the groups are charities, others are meet up groups, others still are small grassroots support groups, but they all share one thing in common – they are all volunteer-led and volunteer run, delivering vital support to those in need, whether it be a meal, companionship, mental health support or opportunities for socialising through sport and song.
Paul Kemp, Director of Pride, said: “Pride would like to thank Stephan Richards (AKA Lola) for arranging such an amazing cabaret line up each year and Tony Chapman of Legends. Tony has been a supporter of Pride and each year has invested back into our community. We are truly grateful to Tony and for all the support over the years”
THE awards will be hosted by Lola Lasagne and the full line-up of artists appearing will be revealed in June Gscene which goes online on Friday, May 24.
Once again this year Security and Event Solutions will provided security personnel for the evening and the tables in the ballroom will be dressed by Billie Lewis Promotions.
stories often ignored and we’ll hopefully encourage everyone to #JustBe.”
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