Tag Archive for: LGBTQ

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Children’s National receives LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader designation

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Children’s National Hospital is one of 496 health care providers nationwide earning coveted “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader” designation.

Children’s National Hospital has received a perfect score of 100 and the designation of “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader” in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 15th anniversary edition of the Healthcare Equality Index (HEI). This is the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey of health care facilities on policies and practices dedicated to the equitable treatment and inclusion of their LGBTQ+ patients, visitors and employees.

“Our hospital has been on its own journey toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) since the early 2000s,” says Denice Cora-Bramble, M.D., M.B.A., chief diversity officer at Children’s National. “Over the past two years we have expanded the scope of our DEI work, which included assessing and improving the care to LGBTQ+ patients as well as the work environment for LGBTQ+ staff. Our improvement efforts are being recognized by this designation.”

The HEI evaluates and scores health care facilities on detailed criteria falling under four central pillars:

  • Foundational Policies and Training in LGBTQ+ Patient-Centered Care
  • LGBTQ+ Patient Services and Support
  • Employee Benefits and Policies
  • Patient and Community Engagement

“Every person deserves to have access to quality health care, be respected and heard by their doctor and feel safe in the facility where they are receiving care. But LGBTQ+ people are often subject to discrimination in all spaces, including health care facilities, which leads to members of the community avoiding care and anticipating our voices will not be respected in an incredibly vulnerable environment,” said Tari Hanneman, director of Health & Aging at The Human Rights Campaign. “The HEI, at its core, strives to ensure LGBTQ+ people are protected and affirmed by their health care providers and feel safe seeking services. Our active participants are truly pioneering the health care industry by implementing robust, comprehensive LGBTQ+ inclusive policies that hopefully, because of their work, will become standard practice.”

In addition to active survey participants, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation proactively researched the key policies for LGBTQ+ inclusion at over 1,300 non-participating hospitals. Those hospitals were much less likely to have LGBTQ+ non-discrimination policies in place, which is a stark contrast to the near-perfect adoption by active participants. Among the researched hospitals, in which the Human Rights Campaign Foundation was able to find or obtain enumerated patient non-discrimination policies, only 70% have policies that include both sexual orientation and gender identity compared to 99% of HEI participants.

“We are designing effective, data-driven and responsive programs that will lead to a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace,” says George Francois, M.B.A., executive director of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders and chair of the Children’s National DEI Program’s LGBTQ+ sub-committee. Francois was a driving force behind the improvement efforts. “More importantly, we are determined to ensure the continued delivery of high-quality health care services to all patients.”

people sitting in a circle holding hands

Religiousness linked to improved quality of life for people with HIV

people sitting in a circle holding hands

Adults living with HIV in Washington, D.C., were more likely to feel higher levels of emotional and physical well-being if they attended religious services regularly, prayed daily, felt “God’s presence,” and self-identified as religious or spiritual.

Adults living with HIV in Washington, D.C., were more likely to feel higher levels of emotional and physical well-being if they attended religious services regularly, prayed daily, felt “God’s presence,” and self-identified as religious or spiritual, according to research published online Jan. 29, 2020, in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. By contrast, patients living with HIV who had the lowest levels of quality of life and more mental health challenges were privately religious, potentially eschewing organized religion due to fears about being stigmatized or ostracized.

“These findings are significant because they point to the untapped potential of encouraging patients living with HIV who are already religious to attend religious services regularly.  Scientific evidence suggests that religions that present God as all-powerful, personal, responsive, loving, just and forgiving make a difference in health-related quality of life. By contrast, belief systems and religions that see God as punishing, angry, vengeful and distant and isolate members from their families and the larger community do not have health benefits or contribute to health-related quality of life. People who identify as spiritual also benefit from improved overall health-related quality of life,” says Maureen E. Lyon, Ph.D., FABPP, a clinical health psychologist at Children’s National Hospital, and senior study author.

“In general, patients living with HIV have reported that they wished their health care providers acknowledged their religious beliefs and spiritual struggles. Additional research is needed to gauge whether developing faith-based interventions or routine referrals to faith-based programs that welcome racial and sexual minorities improve satisfaction with treatment and health outcomes,” Lyon adds.

More than 1 million people in the U.S. live with HIV, and in 2018, 37,832 people received an HIV diagnosis in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2017, the Washington, D.C., region recorded one of nation’s highest rates of new cases of HIV: 46.3 diagnoses per 100,000 people, according to the CDC.

A research team that includes current and former Children’s National faculty wanted to learn more about the degree of religiousness and spirituality reported by people living with HIV and the interplay between religion and health-related quality of life. They recruited patients to participate in a clinical trial about family-centered advance care planning and enrolled 223 patient/family dyads in this study.

Fifty-six percent of patients were male. Eighty-six percent were African American, and their mean age was 50.8. Seventy-five percent were Christian.

The researchers identified three distinct classes of religious beliefs:

  • Class 1, the highest level of religiousness/spirituality, applied to people more likely to attend religious services in person each week, to pray daily, to “feel God’s presence” and to self-identify as religious and spiritual. Thirty-five percent of study participants were Class 1 and tended to be older than 40.
  • Class 2 applied to privately religious people who engaged in religious activities at home, like praying, and did not attend services regularly. Forty-seven percent of study participants were Class 2.
  • Class 3 participants self-identified as spiritual but were not involved in organized religion. Nearly 18 percent of study participants were Class 3, the lowest overall level of religiousness/spirituality.

Class 1 religiousness/spirituality was associated with increased quality of life, mental health and improved health status.

“Being committed to a welcoming religious group provides social support, a sense of identity and a way to cope with stress experienced by people living with HIV,” Lyon says. “We encourage clinicians to capitalize on patients’ spiritual beliefs that improve health – such as prayer, meditation, reading spiritual texts and attending community events – by including them in holistic treatment programs in a non-judgmental way.”

What’s more, the research team encourages clinicians to appoint a member of the team who is responsible for handling religiousness/spirituality screening and providing referrals to welcoming hospital-based chaplaincy programs or community-based religious groups.

“This is particularly challenging for HIV-positive African American men who have sex with men, as this group faces discrimination related to race and sexual orientation. Because HIV infection rates are increasing for this group, this additional outreach is all the more important,” she adds.

In addition to Lyon, study co-authors include Biostatistician Jichuan Wang, Ph.D., and Yao I. Cheng, MS., both of Children’s National; and Lead Author Katherine B. Grill, Ph.D., the former clinical coordinator for this randomized clinical trial who is currently an adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Financial support for research described in this post was provided by the National Institutes of Health under award Nos. R01NR014-052-05 and UL1RR031988.

 

Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. Award

Community-based AIDS prevention organization recognizes Children’s National Health System

Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. Award

Credit: Don Bon Photography

The Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children’s National Health System was honored with the Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. Award for outstanding service in HIV prevention by Us Helping Us, People Into Living, a community-based AIDS service organization committed to reducing HIV infection in the African American community on April 2, 2019 in Washington, D.C.

“We are so honored to receive the Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. Award from our colleagues and friends, Us Helping Us, People Into Living,” said Dr. Lawrence D’Angelo, director of the Youth Pride Clinic and Burgess Clinics, a division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children’s National. “We have always considered Us Helping Us as an essential partner in this struggle and so it’s ingrained as a part of the community. It has been our honor to work with them, and an equal honor to be recognized in this way by them. We are so grateful and so proud!”

Dr. Lawrence D’Angelo and his team at the Burgess Clinic have cared for over 750 HIV infected youth, many who have gone on to live long and productive lives since the clinic opened its doors in 1988. The clinic started the Washington Area Consortium on HIV infection in Youth (WACHIVY) which later became MetroTeenAIDS Metro TeenAIDS, one of the largest and most successful prevention education programs for youth in the country. The Burgess Clinic is the home of over a dozen NIH and foundation grants that supported the diagnosis and treatment of HIV infected youth, accounting for over $55M in support.

“Receiving the Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. Award from Us Helping Us, People Into Living is an honor beyond anything we could have hoped for,” says Dr. D’Angelo. “Our programs were started at the same time to meet similar needs and for years we have worked together and appreciated each other’s efforts in serving our community. D.C. could not have attained the progress it has made in the struggle against HIV without Us Helping Us, People Into Living and knowing that makes this award all the more special.”

Us Helping Us, People Into Living was incorporated in 1988 as a support group for HIV-positive black gay men.