TONSHEND, Vt. – Two of Grace Cottage Family Health’s Nurse Practitioners, Summer Burch and Juliette Carr, led a session at the recent Vermont LGBTQIA+ Health Summit, organized by Out in the Open, Outright Vermont, and the Pride Center, held April 22 at Vermont Technical College in Randolph.
The Summit brought together members of the LGBTQIA+ community, their family members, caregivers, social service organizations, and health care providers, in order to collaboratively explore their health and wellness needs, current projects, and to talk about existing and potential strategies for serving these communities. The summit also aimed to celebrate and support the LGBTQIA+ community.
Burch and Carr’s presentation fit that goal well. Their talk, titled “LGBTQ+ Primary Care,” began with a presentation, during which Burch and Carr presented some of their clinical experiences serving LGBTQ+ patients at Grace Cottage Family Health. They also talked about the work that Grace Cottage has done as an institution to be a safe and welcoming medical environment for this population. This was followed by a sharing session, during which other healthcare providers were asked what has worked well in their practices, and members of the LGBTQ+ community were asked what healthcare approaches have been most helpful and supportive, and what they want providers to know.
“We really appreciated being invited to this summit,” says Carr. “It was good to be in a supportive environment to share about this hugely important and timely topic, especially when the national conversation is concerning.”
“I’m honored that the summit chose us to speak,” says Burch. “It was good to share our journey thus far and to learn about ways to continue working in partnership.”
Presentation topics at this “hybrid” summit – held both in-person and with remote access – included “Food IS Medicine: 3SquaresVT and How Food Insecurity Affects Overall Health,” “Breaking the Social Mirror: An Introduction To Surviving Workplace Trauma and Reclaiming Your Career,” “Storytelling as Healing,” “We Take Care of Each Other: Building Health Care Coalitions for Queer and Trans People,” “Caregiver Support: Consultation for Caregivers of Gender Diverse Youth,” and “Working with LGBTQIA+ People: Best Practices,” among others.
Out in the Open, Outright Vermont, and the Pride Center are the three major organizations supporting Vermont’s LGBTQIA+ community. For more information, visit www.weareoutintheopen.org, www.outrightvt.org, and www.pridecentervt.org.
Grace Cottage provides healthcare that is supportive of all members of our community, and several Grace Cottage primary care providers are particularly focused on caring for LGBTQ+ patients. For more information about Grace Cottage, visit www.gracecottage.org.