Working With Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People in Care Relationships

This chapter details some key considerations for health and human services professionals working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in care relationships. Reflecting on the impacts of stigma and discrimination as well as the social, cultural, and political contexts of LGBT communities and carers, this chapter will explore some of ways these factors (as well as heterosexist and cis-genderist assumptions about families and partners) impact the identification, support, and recognition of LGBT people in care relationships. Finally, this chapter will recommend strategies to reduce poor mental health and wellbeing outcomes among people in care relationships where one or all people involved are LGBT, and explore some key actions that may assist health and human services better support and include LGBT people in care relationships.

Agency at Play for Collective Impact in Human Services Systems

Responses to urban human services issues such as housing and unemployment often overlook lived experiences through these systems and are formulated from a top-down (systems, services, or policy-level) perspective. This study integrates systems thinking and design justice principles for centering the voices of those experiencing these issues towards exploring ‘agency'—the capacity to act—from the bottom-up and top-down in responding to these issues. An agency typology encompassing various bottom-up and top-down agencies is developed through an analysis of Digital Games for Change (DG4C) for the various agencies they can initiate. The agency typology's contributions are threefold—in research (as a method and analytical tool), in practice (as design principles) and in education (for teaching collective action, impact). The agency typology can drive ‘concerted agency' or collective action, where top-down and bottom-up agencies work together, enabling multipronged targeted approaches to complex social issues and maximizing social justice efforts through collective impact.

Working With Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People in Care Relationships

This chapter details some key considerations for health and human services professionals working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in care relationships. Reflecting on the impacts of stigma and discrimination as well as the social, cultural, and political contexts of LGBT communities and carers, this chapter will explore some of ways these factors (as well as heterosexist and cis-genderist assumptions about families and partners) impact the identification, support, and recognition of LGBT people in care relationships. Finally, this chapter will recommend strategies to reduce poor mental health and wellbeing outcomes among people in care relationships where one or all people involved are LGBT, and explore some key actions that may assist health and human services better support and include LGBT people in care relationships.

Emerging Strategies to Big Data Analytics in Healthcare

Big data is gigantic measures of data that can do some incredible things. It has gotten a subject specifically compelling for as long as two decades in view of a high potential that is covered up in it. Different open and private part ventures create, store, and break down huge information to improve the administrations they give. In the social insurance industry, various hotspots for huge information incorporate emergency clinic records, clinical records of patients, aftereffects of clinical assessments, and gadgets that are a piece of the web of things. Biomedical examination additionally creates a critical bit of enormous information pertinent to open medicinal services. This information requires legitimate administration and examination to determine important data. Something else, looking for an answer by breaking down large information rapidly gets tantamount to finding a needle in the pile. There are different difficulties related with each progression of dealing with huge information which must be outperformed by utilizing very good quality registering answers for huge information investigation. That is the reason, to give significant answers for improving general wellbeing, social insurance suppliers are required to be completely outfitted with proper framework to produce and examine huge information methodically. Effective administration, examination, and understanding of large information can change the game by opening new roads for present day human services. That is exactly why different ventures, including the human services industry, are finding a way to change over this potential into better administrations and budgetary focal points. With a protected mix of biomedical and social insurance information, present day human services associations can upset the clinical treatments and customized medication.

Disruption to Transformation: Aging in the New Normal: A Chat With NIA Senior Leadership

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, is the federally designated lead agency on aging research and supports significant research on aging as a lifelong process. In the last six years, NIA has experienced a tripling of its budget. Although much of this funding is targeted to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD-related dementias research, there has been an increase in funds allocated to non-AD research in keeping with the overall growth of NIH. This symposium will provide a forum for exploration of the implications of the budget increases for the general research community. NIA’s senior staff will discuss research priorities and programs supported by the Institute. A question-and-answer session will follow these remarks on current funding and future priorities and research directions of NIA.

COVID Pandemic Impact on Nevada Adult Protective Services

Empirical data regarding Covid pandemic impact on the Nevada Adult Protective Services (APS) Program clients, casework, and staff was gathered and analyzed as part of a multi-faceted program evaluation. Key findings include: 66% of the staff agreed or strongly agreed that the pandemic made their jobs more challenging. Respondents reported Covid-related challenges faced by clients, the program, and themselves as social workers serving older and vulnerable adults. Adverse client impacts observed included increased social and emotional isolation, loss of housing, exacerbation of symptoms of mental illness, necessary services being cut from clients subsequent to testing Covid positive, and fear and reluctance to allow needed visiting service providers, such as home health aides, into their homes. We will discuss the implications of the findings on APS services and clients, and on related health and human services designed to promote the wellness and independence of older and vulnerable adults.

Generation to Generation Project: Pairing Students With Older Adult Mentors During the COVID-19 Pandemic

To meet the needs of older adults isolated in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we began pairing Human Services and Gerontology students with community dwelling adults 55 years of age and older, recruited through senior centers and other organizations serving older adults. Students paired with isolated older adults were tasked with building supportive relationships, assuring that basic needs were being met and that all available community resources were in place, and then documenting their mentor’s life stories with an emphasis on the resilience, strength and wisdom of their older adult mentors (to focus and build on their strengths, the older adults we engage with are referred to as our “mentors”). Oral histories and supporting artifacts are archived in the university’s library permanent repository. The oral histories portray unique perspectives into life, strength, and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine. The older adult mentors participating in the Generation to Generation project reported feeling strengthened and connected through their participation in the Generation to Generation project. To determine if social Isolation and loneliness can be ameliorated through participation in the Generation to Generation oral history project, researchers utilized the UCLA Loneliness Scale in pre- and post- participation interviews; findings will be shared.