Cookies in use
Take The Commitment to Caring Pledge
Interested in participating in the Long-Term Care Equality Index?
The Long-Term Care Equality Index (LEI) is a biennial survey. The survey will be conducted in even years and the report published in the odd years. The Commitment to Caring Pledge is the first step to participating in the LEI.
Leadership at eligible residential long-term care facilities and senior housing providers are invited to sign the pledge as an indication of their intention to adopt the LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices necessary to provide culturally competent and responsive care to LGBTQ+ older adults.
The 2023 LEI Survey Cycle is now closed. We encourage communities interested in growing their LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts to sign the commitment to caring pledge to receive access to webinars, technical assistance, a self-assessment, and resources. The next LEI Survey will open in 2024.
Experts predict that as many as 4.7 million older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) older adults may need supportive care and services by the year 2030. While LGBTQ+ adults confront the same issues everyone else does when choosing aging services -- where to live, how to afford rising costs of housing and healthcare, and how to stay with loved ones -- the reality of life in long-term care for LGBTQ+ people can be drastically different from their non-LGBTQ+ peers. Stigmatization, lack of identity-affirming treatment and experiences of discrimination and violence can lead to avoiding necessary services, chronic stress and increased social isolation among LGBTQ+ older adults. Additionally, approximately 20 percent of LGBTQ+ older adults are people of color who as a group face increased health disparities, higher levels of stigma and have experienced more LGBTQ+ related discrimination than their white counterparts, leaving them more at risk of not seeking or receiving the services they need.
A recent national survey of LGBTQ+ older adults by AARP found that more than 60 percent of those surveyed were concerned about how they would be treated in a long-term care setting, including fear that they might be refused or receive limited care; be in danger of neglect or abuse; or face verbal or physical harassment. The same survey found that more than 80 percent of respondents would be more comfortable if long-term care communities took actions to intentionally affirm LGBTQ+ adults.
SAGE, the world’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ older people, and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF), the educational arm of the nation’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for LGBTQ+ people, are joining forces to launch the Long-Term Care Equality Index (LEI) to promote equitable and inclusive care for LGBTQ+ older people in residential long-term care communities.
SAGE and HRC Foundation believe that most long-term care communities do not want LGBTQ+ older adults to face discrimination or have to worry about the care that they will receive. But these communities may be unsure how to protect their LGBTQ+ residents from discrimination, provide them with optimal care and extend a warm welcome to allay their concerns. The LEI will encourage and help long-term care communities to adopt policies and practices that provide culturally competent and responsive care to LGBTQ+older adults.
Ready to Sign the Pledge?
The housing providers* that are eligible to participate include:
- Skilled Nursing Communities
- Memory Care Communities
- Assisted Living Communities
- Independent Living Communities
- Life Plan or Continuing Care Retirement Communities
- Affordable Senior Housing Communities
- Free-Standing Hospice Communities
*Your community must be open and actively housing residents. If your community has not yet opened its doors, you cannot participate in the LEI 2023 survey year.
*The LEI is limited to long-term care and senior housing communities in the United States and its Territories
Upon signing, you will receive a confidential self-assessment, access to the LEI survey criteria resource guide, and access to the LEI survey to be released in August 2022.