I have been a hospice social worker for 15 years now so I was excited to see this book when it came across my Netgalley feed. While this is not an especially long book, there is a lot of information in it.

The author talks about the history of this population and the difficulties accessing health care (which is still a major problem in many places in the US) which I think helps the health care provider be more sensitive to multiple issues. The book provides good information on how to discuss gender, assigned gender at birth, pronouns, sexuality and more. It gives the caregiver a good foundation on these topics and helps prepare them to do appropriate assessments while being respectful.

The book also discusses practical applications such as setting goals, ethical and legal issues, pain management, disease progression etc. The layout is very hands on and easy to read. I found it really well done and I would love to see this book added to the required reading lists of MSW's and med students.

**ARC provided through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

I hope to see this become essential reading for many people, not just professionals who work in palliative care. I was especially impressed with the activities suggested at the beginning to prompt readers to examine their own potential biases and to gain empathy. It's one thing to say that heterosexuality is viewed as 'neutral'; it is another thing to ask someone to keep track of how often they allude to their heterosexuality or ask them to pretend for a week that they cannot divulge who their partner is or show affection towards them except in private. The latter exercises may really have the potential to change viewpoints.

This book is full of clinical advice that nurses can use while providing holistic, culturally competent, diverse and ethical patient care.

I feel like this is a good book to bring attention to things healthcare professionals might not be aware of and guarantee that LGBTQ+ people get the best possible care at the end of their lives. The healthcare field often doesn't have resources like this, so it's great to see them popping up!

The book is pleasant to read, informative without being condescending and a good start for healthcare workers who are looking to inform themselves on lgbtq+ care. A+, would recommend to anyone!

It is very exciting that more and more health care related research is done with LGBTQ issues in mind. I work in the healthcare field and see everyday how important it is to see the perspectives of different patients.
This guide does a very good job in simplifying the terminology and the topic in general so that every level of healthcare worker or caregiver can read it and understand it. There were some cultural differences in language use between the US and U.K., but it did not interfere with the over all understanding of the text.
The chapters were well organized and the patient perspective and discussion points at the end made the chapter easier to understand and reviewed it again.
I would definitely recommend this book to everybody who works in the healthcare area or is a caregiver to a loved one in the LGBTQ community.

With the increase of those in the LGBTQ community living openly and being allowed to legally marry in record numbers a book of this type has long been needed; although at the same time it’s a little disheartening there’s even a need for it. Last time I checked everyone dies the same way regardless of sexual preference so they shouldn’t be treated differently just because of who they’re in love with.

I felt the author provided unique insight and guidance into how to provide appropriate care when the time comes for this level particularly in best how to address someone such as the proper pronoun or relationship status. I like how she pointed out that the community doesn’t need “special care” as if they’re different from heterosexuals but instead need to be treated more inclusively.

She provides some very astute questions to ask yourself as the caregiver, discussion questions and perspectives from caregivers who provide their vast experience. Those in the field can learn a detailed process on how to provide the best patient interaction as well as educate themselves on practically everything to do with sex, gender, and its applications in the health field including how to ask about assigned birth gender, their true gender and the proper pronouns. She discusses the barriers the community historically has had in accessing proper care, how to take a comprehensive history, coordinate family meetings and how those dynamics can play out in decisions. You learn how to set goals, receive an overview on ethics and legal issues, and learn a variety of strategies on patient care, disease progression, pain and medication management, and signs of death. You’re also given a view on mental health related topics along with spiritual issues.

You can’t leave this book without learning something thanks to her in-depth objectives, key terms, summaries, points to remember, discussion questions and activities. All of which are great to use in team exercises to educate staff and fellow caregivers. She even provides additional resources to show the EXTREME amount of time, attention and detail that went into creating this and how the reader/student can find additional information.

It was still hard to read a quote by a professionally educated medical caregiver who openly declared their Christian faith with firm black and white beliefs which “dictate marriage is solely between a man and a woman.” Even if the nurse does claim she had an epiphany after caring for someone in a lesbian relationship which made her realize their relationship really wasn’t that different from any other couple. As someone with a deep and irrevocable tie to the community it was hard to feel happy that regardless of what her faith dictates the nurse claims she can still provide care for a community she openly admits to hold a prejudice towards. It’s like the separate but equal doctrine: it’s okay to discriminate against those you deem unequal to yourself as long as you provide the ‘same’ standard of care and say you are doing so out of ‘love’.

In some ways it’s people like that who need this book the most; those who are literally defining the quality of life for people who they don’t see as equals. Like I said, I’m bias when it comes to the LGBTQ community since I believe a person deserves quality care tailored to their medical needs and a caregiver’s belief system shouldn’t be a factor in what kind of care is administered.

This is the kind of book every hospital, nursing home, home health, hospice center, etc needs to have on hand, it should be required reading for all caregivers.

This is a welcome text in a speciality that has previously lacked a LGBTQ holistic perspective on all things palliative care. As an educator in the field in the U.K., all the chapters were relevant and provided insight, guidance and focus to providing appropriate care. There were some cultural differences in language use between the US and U.K., but that did not impede general understanding.

I particularly found useful the patient perspectives in each chapter and discussion questions. The consideration of overly-intrusive questions and family dynamics were insightful. Overall, I will recommend this texts to students as background reading and for more focused reading in other situations.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in return for a honest review.