CharityVillage® Research: A gap in helping

Resources & Library

Path: Main Street : Resources & Library : Research Articles : Feature Article

A gap in helping - meeting the needs of gay, lesbian and bisexual clients
by Kristin Duare McKinnon, MSW
September 7, 1998
The Gap
In the helping professions, we strive to help those in need, regardless who they are or how they live. But there is a gap in the services we provide. Some of us are failing to meet the needs of our gay, lesbian and bisexual clients.
Barbara Spencer, a social worker, and Dave Belrose, an educator, live and work in the Northwestern Ontario community of Thunder Bay. Along with their "day jobs," Barb and Dave are the volunteer co-facilitators of Northern Pride, a support group for gay, lesbian and bisexual youth. Barb and Doug provide support, care and education to youth who experience isolation, stress and confusion as they struggle with their sexual orientation. The young people in the group find that the atmosphere of caring, acceptance and support gives them the hope they need to cope with the stress placed on them because of their sexuality.
As they worked with the youth of Northern Pride, Barb and Dave discovered a further challenge in their community: that the organizations and professionals reaching out to help youth often do not address the issue of sexual orientation. As adolescence is a confusing time for all young people, it is vital that they are able to get support when difficulties arise. However, some helping professionals overlook that these difficulties could be related to confusion around sexuality. This oversight with young clients, and their older peers, can lead to services that are inappropriate, ineffective or even damaging. A tendency to often overlook issues of sexuality, combined with society's fear and prejudices towards homosexuality, can lead us to ignore an important reality in the lives of many of those we serve.
Dave and Barb have begun to address this need in their community by educating caregivers in organizations such as the Children's Aid Society and family counselling centres. They educate workers and counsellors on issues of sexuality, sexual orientation and homophobia. Only with such education, can the helping professions successfully support gay, lesbian and bisexual clients while countering the related myths, stereotypes and prejudices of society.

How We React
There are common reactions that helpers may have towards clients who are homosexual or struggling with their sexual orientation. We can learn to do better work with and for our clients by being aware of these reactions and working to change them.
Ignoring: One of the greatest stresses for clients struggling with their sexual orientation is isolation. They often feel unsafe and insecure, and hide their sexuality from those around them. This is a lonely life to live and feels like a lie. There is the constant fear of what will happen if somebody "finds out." Helping professionals may contribute to this invisibility by ignoring the needs of clients who are grappling with their sexual orientation or by not addressing issues of sexuality at all - except as it relates to sexual abuse. By ignoring signs that a client may be gay, lesbian or bisexual, and needs our help coping, we risk service provision that is ineffective, inappropriate and even damaging.

Accepting it and moving on: When we are faced with a client who acknowledges being gay, lesbian or bisexual, we can respond by offering acceptance and support. Unfortunately, after this initial discussion, we may move on to other issues without further exploration. Although clients who are gay, lesbian and bisexual do need our support and acceptance, that is not enough. They need to explore what being homosexual means and how it affects their lives. The prejudices and stereotypes our society has can be extremely detrimental to our gay clients, even deadly. They need to be able to talk about how they are feeling and coping, in a safe and open environment.

Viewing it as a sickness: Some professionals may view different sexual orientations as a sickness and try to "heal" their clients. This negative, judgmental view neither helps the client to deal with the realities of their sexual orientation nor encourages them to seek help again in the future. Because young people who are gay, lesbian and bisexual experience such high rates of suicide and attempted suicide, it is very dangerous to feel that they cannot turn to us for help.

Denial: Professionals may "explain away" homosexuality as the traumatic effect of sexual abuse, or as "normal" adolescent confusion. This reaction is counterproductive because your clients have already gone through a stage of denial and have reached a point of acknowledging their homosexuality. There is nothing you can say that they haven't already considered. This response also denies clients much needed support and education. It is much more productive to help them learn to cope than to deny that they are different. With education, they will better understand themselves and be able to make their own decisions.

"I don't need to know this!": "I don't need to know who you sleep with to help you." This response illustrates a very narrow and limited understanding of sexuality and its implications in society. Human sexuality is about much more than who one sleeps with - it is about who we are. Ignoring that someone is homosexual is ignoring what it means to that person to live in fear and shame, to have to lie about who they are, to not be able to tell others who they love, and to have to live with discrimination and harassment.

Judgement & Rejection: Some of us are not able to accept homosexuality for moral or religious reasons and will judge a client who is gay, lesbian or bisexual quite harshly. Judgement and condemnation is not a new experience for our clients and we condone society's discrimination and prejudices by reacting this way. Rejecting clients by refusing to continue working with them will also effect their trust in the helping profession. Too often we confuse our own issues with those of our clients.

Controlling: We may react by trying to control a client's behaviour - for example, by removing them from programs or groups where they are interacting with same sex peers for fear of a relationship, or not allowing them to work with same sex staff. Another example of controlling is to not allow a client access to his or her gay peers for support.

Allowing or contributing in abuse: Staff may not only ignore issues of sexual orientation but may also allow other staff or clients to verbally or physically abuse gay clients without any consequences. We may even contribute to this abuse by making jokes or comments about the gay client or gay people in general.

Addressing the Problem
It is vital that we acknowledge and address that the helping profession needs help working with clients who are gay, lesbian and bisexual.
The first step is awareness. Helpers need to understand that most of the difficulties that gay, lesbian and bisexual clients experience are not due to their sexual orientation but to society's reaction to it. Workers can then realize that they may be caught in this trap, and learn how their negative reactions may be indicative of misinformation about gay, lesbian and bisexual people. To overcome this barrier, we need to be educated about the myths and realities of different sexual orientations. We must also deal with our own comfort (or discomfort) level in addressing with general and specific issues of sexuality with our clients. These issues are always present and ignoring them does a disservice to our clients and to us.
John McCullagh and Bonnie Simpson, authors of "Accessible child welfare services for lesbian, gay and bisexual youth," recommend that service providers strive to develop an "integrated and effective approach to meeting the needs of our lesbian, gay and bisexual clients, even though many ... may still chose to hide their identities." They recommend the following four components:

Professional Development: Training is essential in learning to understand the truths, myths, barriers and alternative information available regarding sexual orientation. Education should be agency-wide and comprehensive, including all levels of staff and volunteers who may work with clients who are gay, lesbian or bisexual.

Agency Policy: Agencies should review their policies to ensure that they are accepting and supportive of clients who are gay, lesbian and bisexual. Management must support the policies; staff must know that the policies are in place and are to be acted upon.

Programs & Services: Programs must be non-discriminatory and reflect the needs of all clients, including those who are gay, lesbian and bisexual.

Advocacy: Helping professionals need to advocate within and outside their organizations on behalf of clients who are gay, lesbian and bisexual. They also need advocate against general injustices and discrimination against all people, including those who are homosexual. It is our priority to fight for justice and equality for all people regardless of our personal feelings and perceptions.

A Place to Start...

References:
Gibson, P. (1989). "Gay male and lesbian youth suicide." In Feinleib (ed.), Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Youth Suicide. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services. Public Health Service: Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Administration, 3: 110-142.
McCullagh, J. & Simpson, B., Accessible child welfare services for lesbian, gay and bisexual youth. (Additional information not available at time of printing.)
O'Brien, Carol-Anne. "The Social Organization of the Treatment of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth in Group Homes and Shelters." Canadian Review of Social Policy, no. 34, 1994, pp. 37 - 57.
December 1996 study by the University of Calgary Faculty of Social Work: in a study of 750 young men from 18 to 27 years of age, gay males were 14 times more like to have made serious suicide attempts.
Barb Spencer, H.B.S.W., C.S.W. (interview), Northern Pride, Thunder Bay, ON. Phone: (807) 622-6121.
Website: www.egale.ca - Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere.
Kristin Duare McKinnon has diverse front-line and administrative experience in nonprofit organizations providing health, social, and community services. She now has her own business, KDM, which offers program support to the non-profit sector. Kristin's special interests include leadership and service excellence, program development and evaluation, volunteer management, and working with seniors and people with disabilities. She can be reached at KDM, P.O. Box 429, Pontypool, ON Phone (705) 277-3262; Fax (705) 277-2921; Email krisbruce@sympatico.ca.