Rush University Medical Center’s Post

Transcript

Rush���s commitment to the LGBTQ+ community ��� our community ��� goes beyond the doors of the hospitals. We work to make our community a better place, providing access to preventive care guiding patients on how to care for themselves and others, and doing it all while keeping treatment affordable. Here are just a few of the ways we put our commitment into action. We know that LGBTQ+ people have huge disparities in their health and disparities in access to health care. So instead of expecting everyone to come here to Rush, we go out into the community to decrease barriers to care. Our team primarily has three arms of service: So one is vaccination, particularly for infectious diseases like Mpox, COVID, flu. We also do testing out in the community. And education. We're not only trying to reduce disparities in health care, we're trying to make it easy for people to access high-quality, compassionate care. I get to collaborate with other organizations like TPAN, Center on Halsted, CALOR, homeless shelters and long-term care facilities. This allows us to bring our resources to their people and provide these services free of charge. The LBGTQ community faces a lot of stigma and barriers to receiving medical care services. As a bilingual health advocate, it is my job to bring those services to this community so that they feel more secure, heard and informed when they look for care. Since the 1990s, Rush has operated school-based health centers in Chicago Public Schools. And we offer services such as primary care, social care, and behavioral health care. So those are things like school and sports physicals, vaccines, immunizations, sexual and reproductive health care, and then other things such as talk therapy, housing, food and transportation services. In addition, we also provide trainings to CPS staff to help them best support and affirm LGBTQ+ youth. Our support of the community is reflected in the care LGBTQ+ folks get at Rush. It starts at the core of who we are, respecting everyone���s identity even in the language we use to communicate. Rush���s staff is trained to provide inclusive care. But our empathy and compassion go beyond training. Here are a few of the ways that we personally help our patients navigate their care and feel comfortable at Rush. As a social worker, I work very closely with patients to ensure that their health care journeys are as affirming, as respectful, as inclusive as possible. I support our patient navigators in caring for patients throughout the Rush system. Our patient care navigators are able to work closely with patients to help book appointments, to help navigate a very large system with a very human touch. If our patients need me to accompany them to an appointment, wait for them when they get out of surgery. That's one of the benefits that we offer here. Whenever I talk to patients, I try to do a comprehensive screening with them. So I'm looking out for things like food, housing, transportation, utilities, and trying to connect patients with resources inside Rush and outside of Rush. Here in the Access Center, our agents take great pride in extending excellent service to all of our patients. We partner with Affirm and other departments to ensure an easy and smooth pathway to health care. In my role, I specialize in working with HIV and AIDS patients, primarily by providing comprehensive medication education and by helping them navigate their diagnosis. We help patients gain and maintain access to their HIV medications. For those patients who experience financial barriers, we can help connect them with resources that can make their medications more affordable or sometimes free. The LGBTQIA+ psychotherapy group is for individuals who are 18+ to join in virtually to be able to speak about what's going on in their lives and really reflect with others on how to go through life and navigate. The benefits of joining is hopefully not to feel alone within your struggle. A lot of individuals within the community have similar things they've gone through, and so that is a way for you to build community and speak to others about how to navigate those sticky situations. One of our goals at Rush Oak Park ED is to provide our staff with cultural competency training so we can ensure that our LGBTQ+ patients and their families feel safe, comfortable and welcome just as they are.