We have a range of resources to support you to make your organisation or services as inclusive and welcoming as possible for LGBT older people.

Whether you want to read up on the issues and language, hear about older LGBT people’s experiences and hopes, or run your own LGBT awareness training for your colleagues – you will find a wealth of resources here.

These resources were developed through the LGBT Age Capacity Building Project, in consultation with older members of the LGBT community and professionals who work with older people.

• Ten Top Tips for becoming more LGBT-inclusive: this booklet is a great introduction to the issues that older LGBT people face, and includes a wealth of practical things that you can do. It was developed in consultation with older LGBT people, and includes poetry, prose and visual art created as part of our Lifelines intergenerational storytelling project.
• Five tips for providing services to older transgender people:the needs of transgender people are often overlooked or misunderstood. This infosheet provides specific, practical tips for supporting older transgender people.
• Creating a safe space: one really positive thing that you can do to make sure that LGBT people feel safe, welcome and included is to introduce a safe space commitment, which sets out the expectations for everyone in the space. This resource is designed to help you develop a safe space commitment and put it into practice; it also includes some useful phrases for upholding it in trickier moments.
• In the frame – creating inclusive imagery:these ten tips, written by photographer Becky Duncan of Open Aye, are designed to help you to create publicity and information materials which proactively send the message that LGBT people are welcome in your services.
• Top Tips Poster: this poster includes four tips for supporting older LGBT people along with practical actions that everyone can do right away. It’s designed to go up on staffroom noticeboards, and is a great way to get your colleagues thinking and talking about inclusivity.

Audit tool

We have also produced Audit Tools which aim to build the capacity of mainstream organisations to provide more culturally sensitive and inclusive services to LGBT people. These easy to use Audit Tools are designed to guide practice development by helping service providers to think about the needs of LGBT people, their overall experience of using their service and how this can be further enhanced. The tools are designed to help identify practical steps towards ensuring LGBT-inclusive practice, including around policies and procedures, monitoring and promotion and publicity:

• LGBT Age Audit Tool:aimed at individuals and teams providing direct support services to older people, this tool is designed to help identify practical steps towards ensuring LGBT-inclusive practice.

Community films

Return To The Closet?

A film where a group of older members of our community explore what it means to be older, to be part of the LGBTQ+ community and what ‘care’ means to them. This is their film about their needs and aspirations and visions of care, and what their future looks like for them.

A Long Line of Glitter

A new short film created and shaped by a community of LGBT 50+ people living in or around Glasgow. The film offers the rare chance to witness the unique perspective of people who have lived through the changes we now take for granted.

Are We Being Served?

LGBT community members reflect on their experiences, hopes and attitudes towards mainstream services as they get older. The film is a great resource for running your own awareness raising training session, either by yourself or in a group. These training notes will support you to get the most out of the film, and are designed to help you to draw out the key issues and think about practical ways of engaging with them.

Link of interest

•  Scottish Older People’s Assembly
  As a pressure on Governments, SOPA exists to give a strong voice to older people about their concerns and experience of life in Scotland, and also raises issues about age inequalities.
• Age Scotland
  Age Scotland is the leading charity representing older people in Scotland and supporting their rights and interests. Our vision is a Scotland where everyone can love later life.
• Alzheimer Scotland
  Alzheimer Scotland is the leading dementia organisation in Scotland. We campaign for the rights of people with dementia and their families and provide an extensive range of innovative and personalised support services.
• Luminate
  Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing organisation, runs a diverse programme of creative events and activities throughout the year. Our projects bring together older people and those from across the generations to celebrate our creativity as we age, share stories of ageing and explore what growing older means to all of us.
• Care Inspectorate
  The Care Inspectorate is a scrutiny body which supports improvement. That means we look at the quality of care in Scotland to ensure it meets high standards. Where we find that improvement is needed, we support services to make positive changes.
• Silver Line Scotland
  The Silver Line operates the only confidential, free helpline for older people across the UK that’s open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Scottish Government Bereavement Care
  We recognise that quality bereavement care starts with the care of the dying, and is dependent on the provision of evidence based training and support for staff to enable them to provide the appropriate support for bereaved relatives and carers.