Creating LGBTIQ+ Inclusive Healthcare in Maternity and Child Health Services
Guest blog post from Cyrena Hunt-Madden, LGBTIQ+ Project Lead, South Eastern Sydney Local Health District with a wonderful update on inclusion for LGBTIQ+ families.
In 2024, Rainbow Families partnered with the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District on an exciting project to improve access and inclusion for LGBTIQ+ families in Maternity and Child and Family Health Services. This project is crucial because access to safe, inclusive healthcare is essential, especially during conception, pregnancy, and the early years of a child's life.
Earlier this year, we invited you to share your experiences and your voices have been key in shaping the project’s findings.
Here’s what we learned from you:
- Kind, respectful staff and quality healthcare that is affordable and close to home are essential.
- Visible LGBTIQ+ inclusion in services and targeted referral pathways make a big difference.
- Barriers include gaps in staff knowledge, language and assumptions that can discriminate against our families, and limited support for partners and families.
Thanks to your input, we’ve made 30 recommendations to enhance inclusion, and we’ve already begun implementing changes, including
Building Staff Knowledge and Confidence
- Rainbow Families has provided Family Diversity and Inclusion training to staff in our maternity and child and family health nursing services.
- We've created a website for staff with information, training, resources, and referral pathways to help them provide inclusive care for LGBTIQ+ families.
We're developing a training module to support maternity staff in working with trans and gender-diverse people, featuring a patient story video we're creating with a family based on their experiences.
Increasing Visible Signs of Inclusion
- We've developed a values statement to show our commitment to LGBTIQ+ inclusive care.
- New signage, targeted resources, and allyship signs for staff like pronoun badges and rainbow ID tags.
Promoting Active Inclusion
- We're working on updating forms and processes to be more inclusive.
- We're participating in the Health Wellbeing Equality Index and the Welcome Here Project.
- We're continuing partnerships with LGBTIQ+ organisations and sharing project findings with other health services.
If you’d like to learn more about this project, please contact Cyrena Hunt-Madden, LGBTIQ+ Project Lead, SESLHD, [email protected].
Thank you for your participation—your input is helping to create safer, more inclusive healthcare for all!
To find out more about our Child And Family Health - Family Diversity And Inclusion Training, click the link here.
Our Program Manager Rachel Reid will offer training at a time that suits you and your team. :)