Unique Health Issues Among LGBTQ Patients: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals

At the conclusion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Define key LGBTQ terminology used in respectful, patient-centered healthcare communication.

2. Identify health disparities, care barriers, and risk factors that may affect LGBTQ patients.

3. Describe clinical, medication-related, mental health, and safety considerations that may affect LGBTQ patient care.

4. Explain legal, ethical, and organizational practices that support privacy, cultural responsiveness, and nondiscriminatory care for LGBTQ patients.

This two-hour course reviews health issues, care barriers, and communication practices that affect LGBTQ patients. It covers respectful terminology, gender identity, sexual orientation, health disparities, social and structural barriers, mental health concerns, suicide-risk warning signs, transition-related care considerations, gender-affirming pharmacotherapy and medication safety, legal and ethical obligations, and strategies for creating inclusive healthcare environments.

LGBTQ patients may experience barriers to care, including discrimination, lack of cultural understanding, limited access to respectful care, privacy concerns, and difficulty finding clinicians who understand their health needs. These barriers can affect preventive care, mental health care, sexual health services, chronic disease management, medication safety, and transition-related care.

The educational need addressed by this course is the gap between routine healthcare practices and the knowledge, communication skills, and systems-based approaches needed to provide respectful, clinically appropriate, and nondiscriminatory care for LGBTQ patients. After completing this course, physicians and other healthcare professionals should be better prepared to use patient-centered language, avoid assumptions, identify care barriers and health risks, protect privacy, document clinically relevant information respectfully, and support inclusive assessment, counseling, referral, and care-planning practices across clinical and organizational settings. This course satisfies the 2-hour LGBTQ cultural competence continuing education requirement for physicians and other healthcare professionals in the District of Columbia.