Old age does not stop at people who fall outside the heteronormative grid - experts from Ludwigshafen, Berlin, Karlsruhe and Marburg have now dedicated the first German-language textbook to this topic, which deals with the age(s) of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people: "LSBTIQ* und Alter(n). Ein Lehrbuch für Pflege und Soziale Arbeit" (A textbook for nursing and social work ), edited by Regina Brunnett, a health scientist from Ludwigshafen, together with Tamara-Louise Zeyen, Ralf Lottmann and Mechthild Kiegelmann, has now been published by the Göttingen publishing house Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
What does the slogan "Age is colorful" mean for age-related professions? A practical example: in an assisted living home in a small town, a person applies for a place who was born a boy and has lived as a woman for decades. The team wonders: how can the facility accommodate her?
Case studies of this kind underline the practical approach of the textbook - they come from interviews with those affected or from practical work. How do people with different sexual orientations and genders age? How can they be supported by institutions of geriatric care and in the care of the elderly? Such questions have "increasingly come to public attention in the course of social change in recent decades," according to the introduction. Society is getting older, while at the same time the diversity of old people is increasing. This demands new competencies from professionals in geriatric care and nursing facilities.
The book takes this into account through detailed chapters on basic and cross-cutting issues as well as on examples of application, with the publishing team placing "particular emphasis on perspectives from the communities and references to practical facilities as well as existing offerings."
"The practice-oriented structure of the contributions directs the focus to professional action," the introduction states. The textbook is intended for training, study and further education, but also to accompany practice in elderly care, in order to "advance the promotion of needs-based and human rights-oriented work with elders."
A team of experts from the social sciences has come together to publish the textbook: Professor Dr. Regina Brunnett teaches health sciences at the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences. The social pedagogue and social psychologist Dr. Mechthild Kiegelmann holds a professorship at the University of Education Karlsruhe. Sociologist and gerontologist Dr. Ralf Lottmann conducts research at the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin (ASH Berlin). Educationalist Tamara-Louise Zeyen is a research associate in the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Education at the Philipps University of Marburg. She is currently writing a dissertation on "Housing projects for same-sex l(i)ebent persons in old age".
Image copyright book cover: Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Download:https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/lsbtiq
Further information:
Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences
Professor Dr. Regina Brunnett
Department of Social and Health Services
Tel.: 0621 5203-583
regina.brunnett@ 8< SPAM protection, please remove >8 hwg-lu.de
Tamara-Louise Zeyen,
Philipps University of Marburg
Tel: 06421-2824529
E-mail: tamara-louise.zeyen@ 8< SPAM protection, please remove >8 staff.uni-marburg.de
Dr. Ralf Lottmann
Alice-Salomon-Hochschule Berlin
E-Mail: ralf.lottmann@ 8< SPAM protection, please remove >8 posteo.de
Professor Dr. Mechthild Kiegelmann
Karlsruhe University of Education
Tel: 0721 925-4928
E-mail: mechthild.kiegelmann@ 8< SPAM protection, please remove >8 ph-karlsruhe.de
