Working with Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Patients

First remember they're patients like any other patient and deserve respect and good quality healthcare. Much of the research has suggested that LGB patients sometimes have difficulty disclosing their sexuality to healthcare practitioners and that they have concerns about confidentiality being respected by admin staff. So rather than being slack jawed when the builder sitting in front of you tells you about his boyfriend think about it.

There are some really useful documents out there to help you think about how to make your practice more LGB friendly:

Small Effort, Big Change - this is a great guide to making small, inexpensive changes to GP practices which will make huge difference to the LGB patients who use them. Definitely one to look at http://www.gmhp.demon.co.uk/health/gp/smalleffort.html

Not Just a Friend - produced by the RCN and UNISON this is a great guide to working with LGB patients and their families, friends and partners. http://www.rcn.org.uk/london/downloads/notjustafriend.pdf

Good Practice Guide from Scotlands LGBT Health Project - this is a useful starter for ten on organisational approaches which can help you make your practice more LGBT friendly http://www.lgbthealthscotland.org.uk/documents/Good_LGBT_Practice_NHS.pdf

The American Gay and Lesbian Medical Association produced a great guide on being an lgbt friendly healthcare provider

http://ce54.citysoft.com/_data/n_0001/resources/live/GLMA%20guidelines%202006%20FINAL.pdf 

Here's another great resource from Canada which you might find useful:

http://www.genderandhealth.ca/en/modules/sexandsexuality/module-map.jsp

Working with Transgender Patients

Christine Burns has produced a great resource to help practitioners think through their understanding and approach to transgender patients, it is important to remember transgendered patients will be seeing you for more than their gender re-assignment and as with any patient they deserve respect and good quality healthcare.

http://www.pfc.org.uk/medical/cb-eval1.htm