I reference Taoiseach Leo Varadkar when, earlier this year, he thanked people who “helped change minds and change laws” in 1993, but also said “help is still needed, 25 years later, and into the future, to give all LGBT people full, inclusive rights and supports”.

To address the needs of older LGBT people, my organisation, LGBT Ireland, has launched a national poster campaign to create awareness of the amount of support and information available on our helpline and that a listening ear is there.

The poster campaign is part of a broader education programme for health and social care professionals and workers.

LGBT Ireland developed the programme as a result of consultations with older-age services.

In these consultations, it became clear that older LGBT people are largely invisible within mainstream services.

This is not surprising, given that older LGBT people grew up in a time when it was difficult to be open about being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender and many experienced significant discrimination, stigma, and social exclusion.

Despite the barriers, people did manage to come out and this has paved the way for the increased visibility and rights of today.

However, as this older generation begin to access health and social care support, many go “back into the closet”, as they fear those caring for them will be insensitive about their LGBT identity or will discriminate against them.

The findings of our research created a strong drive to address these issues and make this LGBT generation visible, so posters are going up around the country to show people that there is support for them.

LGBT Ireland launched its National Helpline Poster Campaign for older people as part of International Day for Older Persons. The campaign aims to raise awareness of support services available to older LGBT people and raise visibility of older LGBT people with mainstream services pic.twitter.com/YDlloXE3Y1

— LGBT Ireland (@LGBT_ie) October 1, 2018

The poster campaign will run in collaboration with Nursing Homes Ireland, Sage Advocacy, Alone, and Age & Opportunity, to increase the visibility of older LGBT people within older-age services.

These organisations will be disseminating the poster to their member services across the country and will, hopefully, serve to raise awareness of the ‘double invisibility’ faced by older LGBT people, compared to older people in general.

There is a need for mainstream health and social care services to be welcoming and supportive of older LGBT people, so they feel comfortable in accessing healthcare services when they need them.

Statistics from the Visible Lives Study, a 2011 study into the experiences of older LGBT people, showed that 40% of the older people surveyed were not ‘out’ to their healthcare provider and many feared that healthcare staff would not understand, or would discriminate against them, because they were LGBT.

LGBT Ireland is currently providing training to health and social care services to equip staff with the knowledge, competence, and skills to provide inclusive healthcare to older LGBT people.

This is particularly important in residential care settings and we are aiming to have at least one LGBT champion in every nursing home in Ireland by 2021.

The statistics from our own service show us the need for services and supports: 14% of calls to the LGBT helpline last year were from older LGBT people.

The main reasons for contacting the organisation were lack of social supports, isolation, and loneliness.

Of this, 77 % of the older people who contacted the LGBT Ireland Helpline lived in rural areas, with rural isolation cited as a major concern and issue.

Many parts of Ireland have no LGBT specific supports, which makes it impossible for people to build a support network, so it is key that we, as a country, develop community-based supports regionally.

To enhance services and supports, LGBT Ireland’s forthcoming volunteer conference is taking place in Cork, this Saturday, and will have a panel discussion on the experiences and challenges of older LGBT people.

This will provide more insight and evidence to continue to advocate for supports for the ageing population.

Cork has paved the way in support services, with Linc and the Cork Gay Project, but, as the saying goes, ‘a lot done, more to do’.

There is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that when a person is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or trans, they can be open about who they are, so they are visible and celebrated in workplaces, homes, and communities across Ireland.

The LGBT Helpline can be contacted on 1890 929 539 or log onto lgbt.ie/.

Paula Fagan is the CEO of LGBT Ireland.