The Gerontology Institute at Ithaca College held a workshop called “Share the Care” from 2 to 4:30 p.m. yesterday at Longview, an Ithacare Community. The workshop was sponsored by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender organization and discussed issues relevant to aging in the LGBT community.

Marilyn Kinner, outreach program coordinator in the gerontology department, said the workshop was part of the Gerontology Institute Workshop Series that has been providing opportunities for continuing professional education since 1994.

A total of 14 people attended the workshop in the auditorium at Longview. Kinner said a circle of chairs was set up to encourage flow of conversation. She said that most of the people in attendance were involved in professional aging agencies or were members of outreach groups who were interested in adopting a new model.

Nancy Bereano, 2008-09 Cornell University public service center fellow, presented the workshop in three parts. The first part of the workshop was a description of the book “Share the Care,” which discusses the importance of having a group of people to help take care of sick elderly.

“Having a group of people around to do things that a sick person cannot do makes it so that they can live as full a life as they are physical able to do given the severity of their illness,” she said. “It’s a very moving, enlightening experience.”

At the workshop Bereano discussed how the “Share the Care” model is adaptable to almost any situation, as long as there are people who are willing to organize a support group.

As a member of the Tompkins County Working Group on LGBT Aging, Bereano said she wanted to develop a system for the LGBT community that would help aging people become more comfortable in a society that is not always ever-changing.

“It inspired us to see if we could come up with an adaptation of the ‘Share the Care’ model so that it could potentially be a LGBT community-wide engagement to help somebody who may need help so that they could call upon people who were not part of their immediate circle of friends,” she said.  

The second part of the workshop was a screening of “Ten More Good Years,” a documentary addressing LGBT issues related to finding adequate care for elderly. Bereano said the importance of watching the documentary was the ability to give the audience a chance to put a face to the problem.

“It’s listening to these people’s stories instead of just hearing them,” she said. “It becomes easier to understand how these particular people perceive the things that they are going through.”

One topic that was discussed at the workshop was the difference between the “Baby Boomers” and older generation of LGBT people. Bereano said the “boomers” were able to live their adult lives out of the closet, while the older generation were not.   

“Many of the people older than [the boomers] have lived very closeted lives and aren’t able to see themselves as part of the LGBT community in a public way,” she said. “Boomers are not going to go back into the closet just because they need social service care.”

After the documentary, there was an open forum-style discussion about these issues in the LGBT community and made connections to “Share the Care.”

“People often are extremely ignorant about the cultural specifics of LGBT life,” she said. “Especially when somebody is ill, it is very hard to have a person who is acting homophobic, even when they did not intend to.”

 

Sophomore Matt Arnold, exploratory major, said he attended the workshop because he had heard about it from a friend and thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss with friends.

“The issue of elderly LGBT people was something I had never really about before,” he said. “It’s definitely an interesting topic, but I do feel that in this day-and-age they will be accepted and that a good health model can be made available.”

 

Bereano said the model of “Share the Care” is extremely important and can positively affect the lives of aging LBGT people and those who are offering help.

 

“Part of the value of the model is thinking about how it is possible to sustain an effort so that people don’t burn out and that the person who is ill gets the things they need without alienating the person who is trying to offer the help,” she said.