“I feel like I am surviving the health care system”: understanding LGBTQ health in Nova Scotia, Canada

Jacqueline Gahagan,Emily Colpitts

doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3675-8

Abstract

BackgroundCurrently, there is a dearth of baseline data on the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) populations in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. Historically, LGBTQ health research has tended to focus on individual-level health risks associated with poor health outcomes among these populations, which has served to obscure the ways in which they maintain their own health and wellness across the life course. As such, there is an urgent need to shift the focus of LGBTQ health research towards strengths-based perspectives that explore the complex and resilient ways in which LGBTQ populations promote their health.MethodsThis paper discusses the findings of our recent scoping review as well as the qualitative data to emerge from community consultations aimed at developing strengths-based approaches to understanding and advancing LGBTQ pathways to health across Nova Scotia.ResultsOur scoping review findings demonstrated the lack of strengths-based research on LGBTQ health in Nova Scotia. Specifically, the studies examined in our scoping review identified a number of health-promoting factors and a wide variety of measurement tools, some of which may prove useful for future strengths-based health research with LGBTQ populations. In addition, our community consultations revealed that many participants had negative experiences with health care systems and services in Nova Scotia. However, participants also shared a number of factors that contribute to LGBTQ health and suggestions for how LGBTQ pathways to health in Nova Scotia can be improved.ConclusionsThere is an urgent need to conduct research on the health needs, lived experiences, and outcomes of LGBTQ populations in Nova Scotia to address gaps in our knowledge of their unique health needs. In moving forward, it is important that future health research take an intersectional, strengths-based perspective in an effort to highlight the factors that promote LGBTQ health and wellness across the life course, while taking into account the social determinants of health.

Highlights

There is a dearth of baseline data on the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) populations in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada
Conducting LGBTQ health research in Nova Scotia is critically important given that LGBTQ health needs have historically been understood through a heteronormative, gender-binary lens, which assumes that the health needs of LGBTQ populations are similar to those of their heterosexual, cisgender age-matched peers [2, 5, 6]
Scoping review findings Overall, the findings of our scoping review confirmed that the majority of LGBTQ health research conducted to date has largely remained focused on risks and deficits, underscoring the need to shift towards strengthsbased approaches

Summary

Introduction

There is a dearth of baseline data on the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) populations in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. (COPD) (6 % versus 4 %), colon cancer (60 % versus 50 %), heavy drinking (20 % versus 17 %), lung cancer (54 % versus 45 %), and a lower rate of functional health (77 % versus 81 %) [4] These data are important in advancing our understanding of the overall health conditions impacting the health of Nova Scotians, they do not refer to the health of LGBTQ populations in Nova Scotia. Conducting LGBTQ health research in Nova Scotia is critically important given that LGBTQ health needs have historically been understood through a heteronormative, gender-binary lens, which assumes that the health needs of LGBTQ populations are similar to those of their heterosexual, cisgender age-matched peers [2, 5, 6]. While the full impact of this form of invisibility or erasure on the health of LGBTQ populations in Nova Scotia is not well understood, a previous study on the experiences of queer and trans women in Nova Scotia found that participants experienced significant discomfort in their interactions with healthcare providers and expressed fear that they would be denied adequate health care based on their sexual orientation or gender identities [10]

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