Partners in Care Completes LGBT Training and Earns Platinum SAGECare Certification

Last week, VNSNY took another major step in affirming its role as a preferred healthcare provider for New York City’s 750,000 LGBT residents, when the LGBT seniors advocacy group SAGE announced that Partners in Care has been awarded Platinum-level SAGECare certification. This is the SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders) organization’s highest-level award, indicating that 80 percent or more of Partners in Care’s home health aides (HHAs), nurses and other staff have received SAGECare LGBT cultural competency training.

“This credential means that our LGBT clients can be assured they’ll be treated with understanding and respect by every member of our Partners in Care staff,” says Barbara Maccaro, Director of Quality Assurance and Education at Partners in Care. Since Partners in Care launched its SAGECare educational initiative last year, all of its nearly 9,000 HHAs have attended a specialized training session designed to raise their awareness of cultural issues and sensitivities around sexual orientation and gender identification.

The training program, based on a curriculum developed by SAGE, covers topics such as confidentiality, the need to avoid making assumptions about a client’s partnership or marital status, an overview of LGBT history, and the use of gender-appropriate terminology with transgender patients and clients.

With this credential, Partners in Care now joins VNSNY Hospice and VNSNY Home Care, which have also been awarded SAGECare Platinum certification. “We’re proud to be one of the few home care organizations in the New York City area to have provided this LGBT training across our workforce,” notes Jennifer Rajewski, Senior Vice President of Partners in Care. “We want the LGBT community to know that VNSNY is their trusted ally, and SAGECare certification is an important part of that process.”