MORE than £20,000 is being spent to make care homes more ‘gay-friendly’ for people with dementia.

The Mental Health Foundation has handed Age Concern Oxfordshire £21,757 to work at five care homes in the county to make sure lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people are properly catered for.

The project could include changing around communal areas to include two-seater sofas in secluded locations.

Oxfordshire is one of just four projects in the country awarded funding under the foundation’s new Home Improvements scheme.

The money has been earmarked to change attitudes, care home literature and the physical environment to make care homes cater better for gay dementia sufferers.

Alice Runnicles, director of policy and empowerment for Oxfordshire Age Concern, said: “We want to look at various aspects of the care homes.

“We’ll look at obvious things like literature and whether our brochures have images that are gay-friendly.

“ We’ll look at whether there are ways we could do things a bit differently, and whether we could actually put a message across to older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people that their lifestyle is being recognised and they do not have to hide it away.”

Other changes could involve moving seating around so if a gay couple wished to be affectionate to each other, instead of being forced to do it in the stereotypical circle of chairs found in many care homes, two-seater sofas could be put in a secluded location.

Ms Runnicles said it was impossible to say exactly how many lesbians, gays, bisexuals or transgender people suffering from dementia there were in care homes, as many would not admit it, but said that it was likely to be higher than the average population figure of one in 15.

She said the money from the foundation came from donations and not a public-funded grant.

She said: “There is a lot of evidence to show that people from that population are less likely to be married, less likely to have children and less likely to have people to help them when they get older.

“They are more likely to be in need of these services so there will be a larger percentage of these people ending up in care homes. It’s important for them to be included and their specific needs looked after.

“This is a particularly hard-to-reach group of people, some of whom may have been ‘out’ their whole life, but then because of the institutionalised nature of the care home, they are forced to go back into the closet, so to speak.”

While the project will only look at a few care homes, Ms Runnicles said it was hoped the lessons learnt and practical changes made could be rolled out in homes across Oxfordshire and beyond, which would have long-lasting effects on the way people with dementia were treated in care homes.

The project is due to start in April.

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