Each week HuffPost Gay Voices, in a partnership with blogger Scout, LGBT HealthLink and researcher Susana Fajardo, brings you a round up of some of the biggest LGBT wellness stories from the past seven days. For more LGBT Wellness visit our page dedicated to the topic here.
1
LGBT Safe Spaces a Priority in Medical School
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After recently covering bias in medical schools, we have a bit of a crush this week for the Paul L. Foster Medical School in El Paso. They’ve started a SafeZone LGBT Allies training for medical students. This is no small matter when 81.5% of medical students show anti-LGBT bias. SafeZone graduates even get a rainbow pin for their white coats to show LGBTQ patients that they are queer-friendly! We hope more medical schools follow Foster’s lead.
2
D.C.’s Great Idea: Mandatory LGBTQ Health Training for Health Care Professionals
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All nine of D.C.’s city council members have co-sponsored a bill requiring all the city’s health care professionals to get training on LGBTQ health issues. David Grosso, a co-writer of the proposal, said “Over 66,000 LGBTQ citizens reside in D.C., and they deserve access to medical professionals who are sensitive to and knowledgeable about the unique health needs of the LGBTQ community.” D.C. definitely has the right idea. Can we get this everywhere?
3
New Recommendations For Cancer Care Providers
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New guidelines for cancer care providers were recently published on how to make medical care better for LGBTQI patients. Recommendations included creating gender-neutral forms, asking all patients about sexual orientation to gauge cancer risk, and getting accurate training on LGBTQI-specific issues and health inequalities. Frankly, these should go for all health providers and we cannot get enough of them.
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4
Georgia Prisons Allow Hormone Therapy For New Inmates
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After the Justice Department ruled in favor of the rights of trans inmates last week, the state of Georgia announced a change in its prison policy for trans medical care. It will allow continuing hormone therapy for new inmates and promised to give them “constitutionally appropriate medical and mental health treatment.” I guess this is better late than never but, seriously, we need a whole lot more trans prison reform fast.
5
Physician Assistants Receive Insufficient Training
A new study of training programs found that physician assistants aren’t getting enough LGBT sexual health training. On average, physician assistants received an average of only 12 hours of sexual health training overall and, unsurprisingly, 38% of programs said that they covered LGBT-specific topics poorly or not at all. Sadly, we aren’t surprised. We’re praying for the day when medical programs realize that LGBT health needs are a priority.
6
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7
National Transgender Health Summit Sells Out
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We love the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health for many things -- one is their annual National Transgender Health Summit. This year the Summit sold out early, so if you weren’t one of the hundreds gathering in SF April 17-18, keep up with them on Twitter at #NTHS2015 or stay tuned because we’re hoping we can score some juicy highlights to share with you next week. Also, remember the always-free Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference is coming in June.