Providing Inclusive and Affirmative Palliative Care for the LGBTQ+ Community

The LGBTQ+ community is a marginalized and vulnerable population that has been subjected to longstanding prejudice, discrimination, and oppression. As a result, this community has received disproportionate health care, including palliative care. In 2011, the National Academy of Medicine underscored the need to address these health care disparities. Therefore, there is a strong call to action to mitigate these gaps by providing inclusive and affirmative care for LGBTQ+ people living with serious illness, and their families.

In this Master Clinician session, members of a palliative care team from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai will provide an overview of the multidimensional approach to inclusive and affirmative palliative care for the LGBTQ+ community. Through a biopsychosocial, cultural, and existential/spiritual framework, this interdisciplinary team will explore common barriers to care and identify concrete solutions to address them. Attendees will leave being able to identify culturally sensitive, inclusive, and affirmative communication and clinical care strategies for the LGBTQ+ community, and much more.