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Advancing Access to Quality LGBTQIA+ Health Care: Gender Discrimination, Socio-Cultural, and Mental Health Issues: A Mixed-Method Study

Recent research highlights the lack of knowledge and reduced skills of health care professionals in communicating with people from the LGBTQIA+ community. This often occurs due to reduced continuing education on social issues in the health sector. The purpose of this research was to study the readin...

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Autores principales: Argyriadis, Alexandros, Fradelos, Evangelos C., Argyriadi, Agathi, Ziegler, Erin, Kaba, Evridiki
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10048612/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36981675
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064767
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author Argyriadis, Alexandros
Fradelos, Evangelos C.
Argyriadi, Agathi
Ziegler, Erin
Kaba, Evridiki
author_facet Argyriadis, Alexandros
Fradelos, Evangelos C.
Argyriadi, Agathi
Ziegler, Erin
Kaba, Evridiki
author_sort Argyriadis, Alexandros
collection PubMed
description Recent research highlights the lack of knowledge and reduced skills of health care professionals in communicating with people from the LGBTQIA+ community. This often occurs due to reduced continuing education on social issues in the health sector. The purpose of this research was to study the readiness of health care professionals to manage the social and mental health issues of the LGBTQIA+ community. In particular, the cultural competence of health care professionals targeted at gender identity, the recognition of the level of mastery of soft skills, and the relevant experiences of the participants were studied. For the purposes of conducting this research, a mixed methodology was used to pursue an in-depth study of human beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, ideas, and experiences. More specifically, a previously validated research tool was used to measure cultural competence and assess soft skills. At the same time, interviews were conducted with health care professionals for a more complete understanding of their skills and attitudes. The study comprised a quantitative study involving 479 health care professionals and a qualitative study involving 20 health care professionals, with results from each study. The results showed that the health care professionals’ knowledge of the LGBTQIA+ community is sufficient, but their skills and attitudes towards gender diversity are limited. In addition, the level of acquisition of soft skills by health care professionals is low, and there is insufficient training for health care professionals with regards to social issues. In conclusion, a targeted and structured educational intervention for health care professionals is required to avoid future unfortunate behaviours, and to ensure that the health care provided to healthy and sick populations, regardless of sexual orientation, is adequate.
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spelling pubmed-100486122023-03-29 Advancing Access to Quality LGBTQIA+ Health Care: Gender Discrimination, Socio-Cultural, and Mental Health Issues: A Mixed-Method Study Argyriadis, Alexandros Fradelos, Evangelos C. Argyriadi, Agathi Ziegler, Erin Kaba, Evridiki Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Recent research highlights the lack of knowledge and reduced skills of health care professionals in communicating with people from the LGBTQIA+ community. This often occurs due to reduced continuing education on social issues in the health sector. The purpose of this research was to study the readiness of health care professionals to manage the social and mental health issues of the LGBTQIA+ community. In particular, the cultural competence of health care professionals targeted at gender identity, the recognition of the level of mastery of soft skills, and the relevant experiences of the participants were studied. For the purposes of conducting this research, a mixed methodology was used to pursue an in-depth study of human beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, ideas, and experiences. More specifically, a previously validated research tool was used to measure cultural competence and assess soft skills. At the same time, interviews were conducted with health care professionals for a more complete understanding of their skills and attitudes. The study comprised a quantitative study involving 479 health care professionals and a qualitative study involving 20 health care professionals, with results from each study. The results showed that the health care professionals’ knowledge of the LGBTQIA+ community is sufficient, but their skills and attitudes towards gender diversity are limited. In addition, the level of acquisition of soft skills by health care professionals is low, and there is insufficient training for health care professionals with regards to social issues. In conclusion, a targeted and structured educational intervention for health care professionals is required to avoid future unfortunate behaviours, and to ensure that the health care provided to healthy and sick populations, regardless of sexual orientation, is adequate. MDPI 2023-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC10048612/ /pubmed/36981675 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064767 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Argyriadis, Alexandros
Fradelos, Evangelos C.
Argyriadi, Agathi
Ziegler, Erin
Kaba, Evridiki
Advancing Access to Quality LGBTQIA+ Health Care: Gender Discrimination, Socio-Cultural, and Mental Health Issues: A Mixed-Method Study
title Advancing Access to Quality LGBTQIA+ Health Care: Gender Discrimination, Socio-Cultural, and Mental Health Issues: A Mixed-Method Study
title_full Advancing Access to Quality LGBTQIA+ Health Care: Gender Discrimination, Socio-Cultural, and Mental Health Issues: A Mixed-Method Study
title_fullStr Advancing Access to Quality LGBTQIA+ Health Care: Gender Discrimination, Socio-Cultural, and Mental Health Issues: A Mixed-Method Study
title_full_unstemmed Advancing Access to Quality LGBTQIA+ Health Care: Gender Discrimination, Socio-Cultural, and Mental Health Issues: A Mixed-Method Study
title_short Advancing Access to Quality LGBTQIA+ Health Care: Gender Discrimination, Socio-Cultural, and Mental Health Issues: A Mixed-Method Study
title_sort advancing access to quality lgbtqia+ health care: gender discrimination, socio-cultural, and mental health issues: a mixed-method study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10048612/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36981675
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064767
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