Politics, Education, and You

I just read these articles

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/nyregion/23gender.html?_r=1&ref=transsexuals

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/03/24/Westboro_Threatens_Picket_of_Taylor_Funeral/

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-apple-gay-app-itunes.html

and it got me to thinking...

How many of our social work school programs teach up-to-date information on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population? How many of us take it upon ourselves to regularly update our education on the issues that are specific to this group?

It's estimated that 1/10 of the population falls into this category, so the odds are pretty tiny that a social worker could practice for 30+ years and never encounter an LGBT client or a client dealing with stress related to an LGBT family member or friend.

One of my favorite things to do is to provide trainings on LGBT issues, to help educate social workers and anyone who wants to learn to become more familiar with everything from the politics to the correct terminology. On socialworkchat.org, we sometimes discuss these issues as well and we know that NASW believes in treating all clients with an equal level of respect.

So I ask you, Reader, how much do you know? How prepared would you feel if a new client rapped on your office door and wanted to talk about these issues? More importantly, what are you doing to become better educated on a regular basis?

(I'm happy to help anyone with questions and will let you all know when our next socialworkchat.org chat topic will be focused on this population, so please ask your questions and contribute to the discussion by commenting below!)