LOASCA
Research type
Research Study
Full title
LOASCA: Lgbtq+ Older Adult Social Care Assessments project
IRAS ID
308935
Contact name
Jason Schaub
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ+) people have difficulties when interacting with social workers and social care workers. This study seeks to examine social care workers’ assessments of older LGBTQ+ people.
The study will investigate social care assessments and how older LGBTQ+ people with support needs experience them, using three local authority case sites. These case studies will take an in-depth look at the ways that professionals completing assessments consider issues of sexuality and gender identity. We are interested in the social care workers employed within local authorities who conduct assessments with older people, including both qualified social workers and other professionals. Case studies will include a survey of all social care staff, evaluating organisation training materials, reviewing anonymised case files to investigate how assessments are conducted, and interviews to understand how the workers consider people’s sexual and gender identity and whether these identity characteristics are relevant to the care assessment. We will also examine organisational documents to determine how gender and sexual identity are described for practitioners. To understand the experiences of older LGBTQ+ people that use social care services, we will undertake focus groups with them in each site.
The project team includes people with lived experience of care services. They will be supported to undertake elements of the research including interviews and making sense of the information we gather. Their input will improve how we do the research and make sure that key messages coming out of the study are relevant for service users.
We have organised an advisory group that includes older LGBTQ+ people that use social care services, service providers and people representing professional regulators and support organisations. This group will provide advice about tools such as interview questions and help create the resources based on what we find during the research.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
22/IEC08/0007
Date of REC Opinion
14 Apr 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion