BLAZING TRAILS

WINDY CITY TIMES
Communication is
key to minority LGBT
health, research says
By Matt Simonette
New research highlights the need for LGBT
patients—particularly those with intersecting
minority identities—to be collaborative with
their health providers in making medical decisions.
LGBT patients experience numerous health
disparities, and are frequently more reticent
to access care, due to a lack of understanding
of LGBT issues among health providers, among
other issues. That problem is frequently compounded
when the patient is of one or more
minority identities, according to the research,
which was published March 17 in the Journal of
General Internal Medicine.
“A critical part of improving care for LGBT
people of color is improving communication
back and forth between patients and providers,
so the papers provide a framework that both
sides bring to the patient encounter,” said coauthor
Marshall Chin, MD, associate chief and
director of research in general medicine at University
of Chicago Medicine. “…The whole crux
of the project is to improve decision-making
between patients and clinicians. Since values
and preferences are elicited and respected, options
are given to patients, and decisions are
made jointly. It becomes crucial to understand
each patient’s values and where they are coming
from.”
Chin explained a number of cultural barriers
that might impede communication between
LGBT patients with intersecting identities and
their providers.
“What’s shared is a general sense that LGBTQ
folks are ‘different,’” he said. “But other issues
can include—in the Asian-American community,
for example—the concept of filial piety,
the duty of the son or daughter to the parents
or the wider family, and having children and
the continuation of bloodlines. That brings additional
elements of guilt to an LGBT person.
Another example in Asian-American or Hispanic
communities, is undocumented status—that
provides an additional pressure on the ability
to have open communication.”
Becoming aware of additional pressures such
as these make providers more inclined to create
safe spaces in which patients feel safe
to fully disclose their issues. “I like to start
with open-ended questions, getting people to
tell me their story, for example, and [explain]
what’s important in their lives,” Chin noted.
“Oftentimes, you just follow their lead.”
Chin said that the provider’s institution
can contribute to the process by a number of
means, such as ensuring privacy by providing
enough space between intake and waiting areas,
and training intake personnel in cultural
competency on LGBT individuals as well as
persons of color. Having records or paperwork
include prompts reminding personnel to ask
about potential conditions or treatments was
another example.
“A patient should have an empowered mindset,”
he added. “Though when someone is sick
is when they often feel the least powerful. But
increasingly, clinicians are being trained that
there is a value in shared decision-making and
patient-empowerment, so we are encouraging
people to speak up. A clinician knows that they
can’t take care of a patient unless they have
all the information they need for tailored, individualized
care that best suits their needs,
purposes and values.”
Personal PAC
panel April 28
The organization Personal PAC will hold
the free panel discussion “Reproductive
Rights: The Politics of Race, Class, and
Gender” on Thursday, April 28, 5:30-7
p.m., at Weinberg/Newton Gallery, 300 W.
Superior St., Room 203.
The panelists will include Camilla B.
Taylor, counsel for Lambda Legal and National
Marriage Project director from 2010
through 2015; state Sen. Toi Hutchinson;
and Ramon Gardenhire, the vice president
of policy for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.
Personal PAC President/CEO Terry
Cosgrove will moderate.
The panel is part of “Your body is a battleground,”
an art exhibition. All of the art
is available for auction to benefit Personal
PAC at paddle8.com/auction/personalpac
until 9 p.m. on Thursday, June 9.
April 20, 2016 11
Dr. Marshall Chin with Mary Morten (left) and Magda Houlberg.
Photo from Morten
Crossroads Fund
honors organizations
The annual Crossroads Fund Seeds of
Change benefit honored three groups with
awards this year: Invisible Institute, Coalition
to Revitalize Walter H. Dyatt High
School and Black Youth Project 100. The
awards were distributed April 8,at the Chicago
Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St.
The Ron Sable Award for Activism went to
Invisible Institute, a journalistic production
company on the South Side of Chicago, which
aims to hold public institutions accountable
makes them a critical asset for movements.
The Donald F. Erickson Synapses Award
went to the Coalition to Revitalize Walter
H. Dyett High School for its efforts to challenge
the privatization of public education
engaged students, parents, educators and
community residents. Ultimately, the group’s
direct actions successfully pressured Chicago
Public Schools and Mayor Rahm Emanuel to
reopen the doors of Dyett as a public, openenrollment
neighborhood high school.
The Lynda J. Tipton Memorial Award for Social
Justice went to Black Youth Project 100,
which speaks to the core of what so many
youth of color in Chicago and around the
country are experiencing. Through its work,
the organization centers a Black, queer, feminist
analysis and stands in solidarity with
other local struggles, such as the Dyett Hunger
Strike.
See http://www.crossroadsfund.org/.
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