Integrating care for LGBTIQQ in a health-facility setting; Lessons from USA
With five words last week — “Who am I to judge?” — Pope Francis brought renewed focus to Roman Catholic teaching about and outreach to the gay and lesbian community.
That sentiment is at the heart of a new effort involving the Catholic-sponsored St. Peter’s Healthcare System and the Rutgers UniversitySchool of Social Work
The program, called New Brunswick Family Solutions, seeks to aid families and their children who are struggling with the social implications of coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. It will provide support to 20 New Brunswick-area families through six counseling sessions. Michael LaSala, a Rutgers School of Social Work professor, psychotherapist, and author of “Coming Out, Coming Home: Helping Families Adjust to a Gay or Lesbian Child,” will lead the program along with Margaret Ryan, a clinical social worker contracted for the program by St. Peter’s Healthcare System.
According to Ronald Rak, president and chief executive officer of St. Peter’s Healthcare System, the purpose of New Brunswick Family Solutions is to help facilitate family acceptance and support of LGBT family members. Rak said that many teenagers find themselves rejected by their families after coming out, causing them to abandon their homes and find themselves on the street or in dangerous social settings.
“My hope and my desire is that the families we work with will come to accept their child for whoever their child professes to be,” Rak said. “We have to appreciate the fact that every individual is created equal and is to be loved by society.”
Officials believe that this is first Catholic Church-sponsored programin the nation to assist LGBT youth and their families in this manner.
Rak said St. Peter’s felt it was important to generate a program like New Brunswick Family Solutions because its goals align with the tenets of the U.S. Conference for Catholic Bishop’s Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care, the religious organization under which St. Peter’s Healthcare System operates.
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