154: Caring for our LGBTQ Elders

Our Better Half

Our guest this time is Dr. Brian DeVries, a passionate researcher who truly enjoys putting his research into practice. For instance, here’s the website he and his colleagues created to help promote thinking and talking about Advance Care Planning (ACP) among LGBTQ older adults. On the home page of this site is a link to their large Canadian study: “COVID-19 Experiences and Advance Care Planning Among Older Canadians: Influence of Age Group, Gender and Sexual Orientation.”

He is also involved in research comparing caregiving experiences of lesbian, gay, and heterosexual spouses/partners caring for partners with dementia. Out of that experience, he helped start a group, Planning Ahead for LGBTQ Seniors. He and a colleague also published a study linking the experiences of older LGBTQ persons with HIV and their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic with funding from the National Institutes of Health. If you’d like to learn more about his exciting research, you can reach him at [email protected].

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