GREENFIELD — Among the population of LGBTQ+ elders, the need for community is stronger than ever, according to participants of an LGBTQ+ Elders Focus Group hosted by LifePath.
“Personally, I think about the loneliness and the isolation that is more acute once you’re older,” said Peggy Vezina, one of eight focus group participants from around the county. “You start to think about all kinds of things when you’re aging — where we’re going to live, how we’re going to manage and how we’re going to have community.”
Monday’s focus group took place within the context of the Age and Dementia-Friendly Communities project, an initiative LifePath started in partnership with the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, according to Nour Elkhattaby Strauch, age-friendly program manager at LifePath.
“This is a global initiative that was started by the World Health Organization and is administered in the U.S. by AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) … in order to engage in age-friendly planning for the future,” Elkhattaby Strauch explained. “Infrastructure and public policy and things that worked when we had 10% to 12% older adults in the community now have to work with 30% to 35% older adults, which is what some of our towns are up to.”
The focus group, which was designed to help identify some of the unmet needs in the LGBTQ+ community, followed a survey completed by nearly 2,000 area residents over 50 years old, seeking input on topics ranging from daily exercise to internet availability, and from nutrition to health care and financial security.
“This is a participatory approach,” he said. “Instead of having some grant-funding organization tell us how to make the town age-friendly … the ideas actually come from the community itself.”
Elkhattaby Strauch said the focus group with the LGBTQ+ community this week was one of a few focus groups expected to happen as part of the overall needs assessment stage of the process. Other focus groups LifePath plans to host include one for low-income elders and another for ethnic minority elders. A focus group was recently conducted for those in supportive housing.
“I think something to keep in mind is that when we’re talking about LGBTQ+ elders, we’re still talking about elders,” said Elkhattaby Strauch, one of the focus group facilitators. “It’s not a separation from the issues of older adults in the community — so many things are the same. For example, the first thing that came up was transportation when we were talking about unmet needs … and access to affordable housing; also, the isolation and loneliness that people have been experiencing over the last couple years.”
Still, he said, there are issues that are unique to the LGBTQ+ community.
“A lot of folks mentioned that many older adults who identify as LGBTQ+ don’t always feel safe in supportive housing or shared housing or subsidized housing,” he said. “There’s still a lot of stigma, even after all these years.”
The need for services and support is often harder to navigate because of the “added layer of discrimination.”
Cheryl, a focus group participant who declined to share her last name, said in the “current mood of our country,” she feels significantly less safe as a person with a disability who identifies as lesbian.
“We have, out of necessity, been self-reliant,” she said. “We’ve learned to fix things, we’ve learned how to use tools, we’ve learned how to correct things.”
Likewise, Vezina, who retired in the fall, said as she ages, she’s no longer able to do everything she once could.
“The need for community is stronger because of those things,” Vezina said.
She added that while she has had conversations with her wife about senior housing, even that feels scary.
At least one participant in the focus group spoke to the desire for regular meetings of individuals who identify similarly, Elkhattaby Strauch said.
“One of the things that was interesting and unique about today was this idea that sometimes we lump this category all together — LGBTQ,” he said. “Some folks said they wish there was more focus on lesbian-only groups or bisexual-only groups.”
Participants emphasized the importance of not thinking of an entire category as one monolith, one group, he said. For instance, health care needs in the trans community may be different than they are in other communities.
“There are a lot of different needs,” he said.
Elkhattaby Strauch said the data gathered from the focus groups, combined with the survey data, will help to create an age-friendly action plan that incorporates short-term, medium-term and long-term goals to improve the physical and social environment for elders. He hopes to have an action plan to begin implementing by early 2023.
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne