The purpose of this Resource Guide is to support health center care teams in providing equitable, compassionate, high-quality care for patients in the contexts of pain management, substance use disorders (SUDs), and meaningful linkages to care. Inside, you will find actionable strategies and resources to help your care team reduce health disparities and advance health equity among minoritized and stigmatized people who, due to historical and structural injustices, are more vulnerable to undertreatment and mistreatment of pain and SUDs.
Learning Resources — Publications
Why Weight? Diabetes Prevention and Care Learning Collaborative
The Education Center’s Why Weight? Diabetes Prevention and Care Learning Collaborative focused on engaging teams from health centers across the US to undertake practice transformation conducive to diabetes care in LGBTQIA+ communities.
Throughout this publication, we briefly describe the structure and objectives of the learning collaborative and highlight promising practices for diabetes prevention with LGBTQIA+ patients. This publication provides a pathway forward for health centers to better serve LGBTQIA+ patients and to lay a solid foundation for diabetes prevention and care that is culturally inclusive and affirming.
- Filed under
- Diabetes and Heart Health
Integrated Behavioral Health Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse People: An Affirming, Harm Reduction, and Trauma Responsive Approach
Integrated behavioral health care cannot eliminate all barriers and health inequities experienced by transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people. It can, however, serve as a bridge to overall wellness, and can fulfill functions associated with primary care, and in doing so, can represent a low-barrier, harm reduction method of meeting patients’ needs. It can provide a setting to address mental health concerns that may arise from the process of negotiating one’s identity as a TGD person, being denied certain forms of health care, or navigating spaces where one’s value is diminished. Integrated behavioral health care can also help to facilitate the initiation and management of gender-affirming hormone therapy, thereby reducing the need for referrals to specialty providers, eliminating wait times, and enhancing patient and provider satisfaction.
- Filed under
- Behavioral Health
- Transgender Health
Body Image, Eating Disorders, and LGBTQIA+ Identities: Supporting Youth, Older Adults, and Non-binary People
Eating disorders have steadily increased in the U.S. population, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although once considered a problem for white wealthy girls and women, eating disorders and related body-image disturbances are now known to reach across all races/ethnicities, socio-economic levels, and gender identities. Research suggests that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have a high prevalence of eating disorders and negative body image that may require culturally responsive approaches to screening and counseling. This clinical publication provides information and strategies for improving the capacity of health centers to screen, assess, and address issues related to eating disorders and body image among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and all sexually and gender diverse (LGBTQIA+) people, with special considerations for LGBTQIA+ youth, older adults, and non-binary people.
- Filed under
- Behavioral Health
HIV Prevention Learning Collaborative Summary
From December 2020 through April 2023, the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center developed and facilitated three HIV prevention learning collaborative cohorts involving 29 organizations and 79 participants. Participants represented a range of role groups within health centers and worked in diverse locations around the country. Overall, participants described a significant amount of knowledge gained from the sessions and satisfaction with the training. Two of the cohorts overlapped with the Covid-19 pandemic; the learning collaborative’s virtual format was conducive to pandemic limitations on in-person gatherings, and the program provided a strategy to continue building capacity for PrEP during and despite the pandemic. Key lessons from the learning collaborative program include the importance of training about logistical and programmatic aspects of PrEP, the feasibility and desirability of engaging multidisciplinary teams in PrEP training, balancing education about scientific advancements in PrEP with content on implementation and addressing HIV risk perception and adherence. Going forward, we aim to create new content on risk perception and adherence and institute systematic evaluations of the learning collaborative cohorts to facilitate ongoing innovation and improvement.
Mpox: A Guide for Front-line Clinicians
Human mpox (monkeypox) is an infection characterized by rash and fever. Mpox has historically been reported in Central and Western Africa, and in early 2022, additional cases were identified in Europe and North America. By late November 2022, more than 80,000 cases had been identified in 110 countries, most of which had never previously reported the infection.
- Filed under
- HIV/STI Treatment and Prevention
Affirming Organizational and Human Resource Policies for an LGBTQIA+ Workforce
Building a space of equity and inclusion for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, and asexual and all sexual and gender minority (LGBTQIA+) people in health care is a critical step to address health disparities faced by these communities. However, the process of building inclusive spaces is one that takes significant time, analysis, and investment at every level of leadership. This guide presents strategies and considerations in driving organizational change for LGBTQIA+ inclusion and equity in health care.
- Filed under
- Organizational Change
Ready, Set, Go! Guidelines and Tips For Collecting Patient Data on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) – 2022 Update
This guide was designed to help health centers and other health care organizations successfully collect sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data and document the data into the electronic health record (EHR). For those just beginning the process, this guide can be used from start to finish. If you already have a system, but have encountered challenges and questions, this guide can help you address them. Even if your system is working smoothly, you will find resources and recommendations here that will help you move to the next level of data collection and analysis.
Health Care Considerations for Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ Indigenous Communities
This publication will guide health centers in providing affirming care and services for Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) people. Readers will explore key concepts, terminology, and the effects of historical trauma. Discover best and promising practices for care that incorporate Indigenous holistic models of wellness and focus on resilience and protective factors, including links to resources for further exploration of this topic.
Coordinating HCV and HIV Treatment in Primary Care
HCV and HIV are overlapping epidemics with serious clinical implications for infected patients and health centers are poised to prevent and treat these viral infections by understanding the implications of comorbidity and by creating a welcoming environment for those at risk for, previously infected, or currently living with one or both diseases. This publication, a collaboration of the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium and the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, explores the link between HCV and HIV, with particular emphasis on considerations for community-based primary care providers.
- Filed under
- HIV/STI Treatment and Prevention
