Continuing Education: Providing LGBT-Inclusive Health Care from Diagnosis Through End of Life

Health care providers have limited knowledge and notable discomfort when engaging with individuals around issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. Practitioners in geriatric, palliative, and end-of-life care settings may associate care of the LGBT population with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which coincided with the formalization of the federal hospice benefit. While new texts continue to emerge, the language, legislation, and best practices for the LGBT population are dynamic and can sometimes be controversial. Social workers have an integral role in supporting the LGBT population at end of life, both on micro and mezzo levels. Social workers are necessary for establishing trust and providing holistic, patient-centered palliative care that honors the patient’s wishes. They are also critical members of social service agencies, hospitals, and community-based programs with an important role in influencing policies, procedures, culture, and organizational values. This class will be taught by Adam Schoenfarber, LCSW, APHSW-C, social work team manager, MJHS Hospice and Palliative Care.

Completion of this class will result in the receipt of three continuing education hours.

About the Instructor
Adam Schoenfarber is a social work team manager with MJHS Hospice and Palliative Care, where he oversees hospice social services for adult and pediatric clients. He coordinates and supports the second-year field experience in hospice and palliative care for social work students. He is an adjunct faculty member at Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service, where he teaches the Palliative Social Work course. His interests focus on disenfranchised, marginalized communities and ensuring that end-of-life providers provide relevant, patient- and family-centered, and culturally sensitive care. Schoenfarber obtained his Master of Science degree in social work at Columbia University School of Social Work. He completed his undergraduate studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst.