Heterosexism in Health and Social Care

JULIE FISH is Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow in Social Work at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. She worked for twenty years in a variety of social care contexts before becoming an academic and has been involved in a range of LGB health and social care community projects. She has published several articles and was awarded the theory prize by the British Psychological Society, Psychology of Women Section Review for her work on lesbian health.

• List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements PART I: UNDERSTANDING HETEROSEXISM IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE What is Heterosexism? Assessing the Health and Social Care Needs of Lesbians, Gay Men and Bisexuals Intersecting Identities: Recognising the Heterogeneity of LGBT Communities Conducting Research Among LGB Communities What are the Demographic Characteristics of the LGB Population? PART II: EXEMPLARS OF HETEROSEXISM FROM RESEARCH Disclosure and Non-Disclosure: Lesbians' Strategies of Accommodation and Resistance in their Interactions with Health Professionals Screened Out: Lesbians' Experiences of Cervical Screening Risky Bodies? Lesbians and Breast Cancer New Directions in Equality Agendas: Opportunities and Threats Appendices References Index

'This book challenges us all to examine how our skin colour, nationality, religion, class, abilities, and sexuality may be a privilege, an invisible package of unearned assets which can be cashed in daily.' - Jeanelle de Gruchy, British Medical Journal'This book is especially challenging in how we marginalise LGBT people, often without thinking...This is a must-read for all healthcare professionals.' - Drew Payne, Nursing Standard'The book covers a number of useful and interesting areas - how a lack of awareness and data about the LGBT community means that some important needs go unmet...Other parts of the book cover the diverse nature of the LGBT community and issues to do with doing research with and amongst this group.' - David Abbott, Health and Social Care in the Community'The book is well-structured and clearly written, and Fish manages to engage and challenge the reader at the same time, with thoughtful and lively material...This is an excellent book that will be useful to all students and professionals in health and social care.' - Joy Trotter, Critical Public Health'The text has a very broad scope, is necessarily descriptive, and provides brief overviews to numerous health and social care topics...Students throughout the social and healthcare disciplines will find this a very accessible book, and for those involved in public policy development and the commissioning of health and social care research it is a must read.' -Elizabeth Peel, Sex Roles: A Journal of Research