Page 87 - Petelin, Ana. 2021. Ed. Zdravje starostnikov / Health of the Elderly. Proceedings. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
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incorporating issues experienced by LGBT+ older adults into curricula (Hig- integrating the needs of LGBT+ older adults into health and social care education 85
gins et al., 2019a). The second study in the Being Me project looked at the out-
comes of interventions used to educate health and social care workforce on the
experiences and needs of LGBT+ older adults, in particular what impact the in-
terventions have on the knowledge, attitudes and skills of participants. The in-
cluded studies showed some positive outcomes, such as an increase in knowl-
edge among participants, but not necessarily a change in attitudes or newly
acquired skills (Jurček et al., 2021), therefore more emphasis needs to be placed
on the transfer of acquired knowledge into practice when delivering training
targeted at professionals working with LGBT+ older adults in the future. The
review has shown that longitudinal studies of the impact of educational inter-
ventions are needed and that diversification of intervention content, different
methodologies and the involvement of the public (particularly LGBT+ individ-
uals and organizations) at all stages of the design and delivery of educational
interventions could lead to a more sustainable impact (Jurček et al., 2021).

Conclusions
LGBT+ older adults represent one aspect of an increasingly diverse group of
people whose need for health and social care services is growing in an aging so-
ciety. In the future, staff training in these areas will need to address the needs
of LGBT+ older adults, as providers of these services have a key role to play in
delivering friendly and inclusive care for LGBT+ older adults. The Being Me
project addressed these issues using both participatory approaches to include
personal experiences of LGBT+ older adults and reviewed existing literature
with the intention of providing educators and practitioners with valuable re-
sources to incorporate the needs of LGBT+ older adults into curricula and train
practitioners in health and social care services.

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