Stillwater Hospice received a platinum level SAGECare credential this week, making it the only hospice agency in Indiana to have received the training-based credential.
A SAGECare credential shows that the hospice team has been trained on LGBTQ+ aging cultural competency.
Stillwater CEO Leslie Friedel said an advocate from the community reached out to them, recommending they work to get the training in order to create safe, local healthcare.
“We started to look into it and it aligned so closely with our values," she said. "One of our core values at Stillwater is inclusivity and we felt like this was a way to really live in our values.”
Friedel said it’s important for hospice staff to understand issues specific to that community because by 2030, experts expect around 7 million LGBTQ+ people 65 or older nationally.
LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. still face barriers to healthcare, including postponing or avoiding care due to a fear of discrimination. According to the Guttmacher Institute, many people in the community are hesitant to seek care due to having been discriminated against by medical professionals before.
Stillwater Hospice is a financial supporter of 89.1 WBOI.
