One of our top priorities in East Sussex is to reduce health inequalities, and to help people stay healthy and well for as long as possible. To help us do this we need to understand the health needs and experiences of different groups of people within our community.
Over the last year East Sussex County Council has been working closely with a range of partners to understand local lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer + (LGBTQ+) people’s experiences of health, accessing services, and how COVID-19 has impacted them.
Much progress has been made nationally regarding the rights of LGBTQ+ people, but significant inequalities still exist, and there are still gaps in support.
The new needs assessment looked at a range of data and research and gathered views and experiences of local people.
The final report was published in April 2021, and you can now read it on the JSNA website.
The report makes a wide range of recommendations, including:
- Engaging with LGBTQ+ communities to help increase people’s awareness of the services and support available to them, and to understand more about their experiences
- Making sure health and care services are inclusive, for example through awareness and inclusion training for staff
- Specific services and support for LGBTQ+ people
- Collecting data to help us better understand people’s use of services
- Five recommendations to improve healthcare for trans people
- How the local health and care system can take forward the findings.
Colleagues and forums across the health and care system are working together to look at how the recommendations can be taken forward.