Bridging the Health Gap and Health Care Disparities in LGBTQ

Healthcare Disparities in LGBTQ
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Healthcare Disparities in LGBTQ:
How to close the healthcare disparities gap in the LGBTQ community?
Introduction
The LGBTQ community is a minority group that transcends all religions, races, and ethnicities. However, the majority of individuals belonging to this community happen to have egregious discrimination experiences. Societal acceptance of the group happens to be quite low, which has greatly impacted their lives and the communities they choose to live in. Members of the group have been subjected to stigma, violence, and in other instances, many have been denied access to certain public services. These issues have led to a myriad of problems for the LGBTQ community, with many reporting to have numerous psychiatric disorders (HealthyPeople.gov, 2021). These issues happen to escalate to levels where community members develop suicidal thoughts or are found to fall to social vices like substance abuse. Familial acceptance also happens to be quite low for a majority of these members, and many find themselves alone the moment they ‘come out.’ The discrimination the group experiences transcends all sectors as many also receive a low quality of care. Low quality of care can also be attributed to the insensitivity of the needs of this community (Hafeez et al., 2017). The community deserves and should demand better. Provided herein is an analysis of how the LGBTQ health gap can be closed and the health disparities eliminated.
Bridging the LGBTQ Health Gap
There is a need to gather more comprehensive data on the healthcare needs of the LGBTQ. According to Krehely (2009), the current data on the healthcare needs of the LGBTQ community can “best be described as loosely knit patchwork that often raises more questions than it answers.” The lack of information on the LGBTQ community makes it incredibly difficult to develop mechanisms to help alleviate the healthcare issues suffered by the community. Therefore, there is a need to amass current, relevant, and applicable data from the community to help develop apt mechanisms to bridge the health gap.<...