Building Cultural Competence in Aging and LGBT Services Nationally: Evaluating Training Curricula of the National Resource Center on LGBT Aging

Background and Purpose:

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older adults face substantial health disparities (Fredriksen-Goldsen, Kim, et al., 2011). As the literature on LGBT aging is quickly growing, gerontological social workers are well-situated to build knowledge on how to support LGBT older adults as they experience the intersecting challenges of aging within a marginalized community. The National Resource Center on LGBT Aging (NRC) is a partnership of organizations nationwide led by Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE). The NRC provides, among other resources, cultural competence training using a variety of curricula and modalities designed for both aging and LGBT service organizations. Training modalities include in-person trainings as well as live and online recorded webinars. While a variety of curricula have been developed to increase cultural competency of aging service providers, most have incorporated limited evaluation efforts with small sample sizes. The evaluation protocol of the NRC utilizes pre/post test measures with a large, national sample, thus providing an opportunity to generalize results.

Methods:

This paper presents results from the evaluation of each training modality delivered by the NRC between September 2011 and December 2014, including: pre-test/post-test surveys of in-person trainings; a 90-day follow-up survey following the in-person trainings; and post-test surveys administered at the conclusion of webinar presentations. In-person trainings were offered nationally in urban, rural, and suburban settings as well as in institutional and community-based organizations. For in-person trainings, independent and paired-sample t-tests were used to examine changes between pre-test and post-test measures of knowledge, attitudes, and comfort using specific language. Descriptive statistics were used to assess participants’ knowledge and attitudes at the conclusion of each webinar.

Results:

The evaluation offers evidence that the trainings are meeting their goal of increasing cultural sensitivity among stakeholders who serve LGBT older adults. Pre- and post-test results of in-person trainings (N = 3,071) show significant positive changes in knowledge and attitudes around serving LGBT elders. Ongoing follow-up with training participants (N = 154) continues to suggest that these changes remain positive over time. Post-test surveys of webinar trainings (N = 155) show that the majority of webinar participants demonstrate knowledge intended to deliver, and webinar participants find the webinar useful in that they gain ideas for implementing changes in their work and are more prepared than prior to the webinar to work with clients from the LGBT community.

Conclusion and Implications:

The evaluation of trainings delivered nationally by the NRC demonstrates that the variety of curricula (webinar and in-person) offered are effectively meeting their objectives of building knowledge and increasing cultural competency in service delivery to LGBT elders. Implications for research include further testing of the training’s efficacy using randomized sampling techniques. Implications for policy may include mandatory training of all service providers in the aging network. It is essential to ensure that aging service providers are prepared to meet the needs of this historically marginalized community.