Ian Rivers - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Ageing: Biographical Approaches for Inclusive Care and Support

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The editors wish to thank the Economic and Social Research Council who funded the seminar series from which this book is taken. We would also like to thank the four universities that hosted the seminars: Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow, Robert Gordon University Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh, and all those who worked so hard to help us stage the seminars at each venue. We would also like to extend our thanks to all the contributors and participants in the seminar series who ensured its success. Particular thanks go to the Equality Network and the Scottish Transgender Alliance for their support throughout. Finally, we are grateful to Caroline Walton at Jessica Kingsley Publishers for her support and patience in the delivery of this book.

Mike Sutherland, Ian Rivers and Richard Ward

Putting equality into practice is no mean feat. One of the greatest challenges faced by those who work on the frontline of health and social care services relates to the Equalities Act (2010); while it is clear about the principles and outcomes for a Fairer Britain it offers few clues as to the process of getting there. Having identified that inequalities persist in health and social care in terms of access to services and the appropriateness of the services provided, we are left with the question, how do we take forward an equalities agenda in the hope of creating a more inclusive and egalitarian system for care? In this book we consider biographical practice as one strand of the process of creating fairer provision. Our focus is on the provision of care and support to older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (hereafter LGBT) service users, an area of practice for which there is currently very limited guidance or evidence to support improvements, and yet every indication of the need for change (Ward, Pugh and Price 2010).

This book is derived from a series of seminars, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) entitled, LGBT Lives: The Biographies and Life Course of Sexual/Gender Dissidents. Over a period of two years, four seminars were held across Scotland that sought to understand the lived experiences of LGBT people, how those lives are themselves represented, and the challenges to the mainstream those lives offer. The seminars attracted international interest and sparked a debate that we have carried forward into this book. Our theme of the life course and the biographies of LGBT people proved incredibly fruitful. It enabled us to begin to understand the diverse ways that LGBT lives can inform working cultures and the delivery of services and, alongside this, the many ways in which biographical practice has been deployed in public services and beyond. Above all, the seminars served to demonstrate that sexuality and gender identity imbue our everyday lives, and rarely are there any points in a persons life at which their sexuality does not shape a connection to the world they inhabit. The success of the seminar series spurred us to share some of what we have learned with a larger audience, and in this book we consider the value of developing biographical practice in working with older LGBT people in health and social care settings.

This book therefore concerns itself with looking beyond a narrow focus on need to consider a life lived and how an understanding of that life might facilitate more effective ways of working with and supporting older people. This book is the first of its kind in a UK context. It is the first to pull together a series of writings that address a range of issues that have affected LGBT people. It is the first to present these issues comprehensively, through the medium of biographical narratives, so that the voices and stories of our older LGBT citizens are heard and understood. It aims to reflect those voices as much as possible allowing the reader to hear and feel how LGBT people view their old age, live their old age and engage with (or not) health and social care services.[1] Our contributors provide the reader with very good reasons why this approach is a beneficial one in understanding how person-centred care with older LGBT people may be better delivered.

The timing of the publication of this book is apposite, with the introduction, in October 2010, of the UK-wide Equality Act which provides businesses, the private, public and voluntary sectors with a single, streamlined framework for tackling inequality and discrimination. Gender, sexual orientation and gender reassignment are now protected characteristics under the Act and it is incumbent upon us all to be mindful of these protected characteristics in terms of service delivery. Soon it will also be unlawful to discriminate against individuals receiving services on the grounds of age. This significant piece of legislation places a requirement on all those providing services to ensure that they are doing everything possible to counter discrimination, including ageism and heterosexism and their insidious presence within large social institutions, such as the welfare system.