Involving you locally in LINks
A toolkit for understanding and participating in Local Involvement Networks
This guide will provide you with all the knowledge and contact information you need to get on board with your local LINk and empower you to help improve the quality of services for the LGBT community.
Last year the NHS celebrated its 60th birthday and is the largest publicly-funded health service in the world. Today’s health and social care services have to cater to the broad needs of the diverse communities nationwide, especially hard-to-reach communities such as black, Asian and minority ethnic people, disabled people and refugees. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered individuals are now in a position to have legal and legislative protection to health and social care free from discrimination.
Such legislative developments include:
- The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, preventing employers from refusing to employ people due to their sexual identity as well as protecting workers from direct abuse and homophobia from colleagues
- The Gender Recognition Act 2004, granting full legal recognition to a trans person’s acquired gender, including new birth certificates and the right to marry
- Civil Partnership Act 2005, offering the same treatment in a wide range of health and legal matters to same-sex couples who form a civil partnership
- The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007, prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods and services, including health and social care.
- Duty to Involve, a duty for local authorities to involve the communities that they serve
- The Equality Bill, set to extend the current duties on Gender, Race and Disability equality to include Religion/Faith, Age and Sexual Orientation.
Despite advances in legislation recent Stonewall research into Lesbian and Bisexual Women’s health found 50% of participants have had a negative experience in the health sector in 2008, and only half of the participants were out to their GP (Stonewall, 2008). Many are still wary about disclosing their sexual orientation to health practitioners for fear of receiving discrimination or poorer treatment. Others fear who will have access to patient records, including employers, mortgage providers and insurance companies. In addition, lesbians, gay men and bisexuals are more likely to smoke and drink alcohol than their heterosexual peers (D’Augelli, 2004)
A shift towards Practice-Based Commissioning places the commissioning of the services in the hands of clinicians who, equipped with the knowledge and make-up of the service users in the area can commission specialist services to cater to specific communities. PCTs will be accountable to their local communities and to the Secretary of State for the choice and availability of high-quality healthcare services. They should seek to engage with local people and other local service providers either directly or through external agencies or partners to ensure patients views are properly heard and coherent access to integrated health and social care services is provided. With this seismic shift in provision of a patient-led, community-focused national health service there has never been a better time or a better opportunity for you as an LGBT organisation to get involved with your Local Involvement Network.
This toolkit will provide you with all the knowledge and contact information you need to get on board with your local LINk and empower you to help improve the quality of services for the LGBT community.
