Medicine and Surgery HT

Research suggests that there is a need to ensure that health and social care professionals can deliver care and support to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals and those who otherwise identify as a minority regarding sexual orientation and gender identity (LGBTQ+). Specific training on LGBTQ+ issues may improve the competencies and skills of health and social care (HSC) professionals, which reduces the negative attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people. Despite this, there seems to be a lack of coverage of LGBT+ needs in HSC education. The present course aims to explore the specific LGBTQ+ training needs of HSC professionals and examine the relationship between these training needs. During the past several years, many official public health agencies called for programs addressing the specific needs of LGBTQ+ people (Baiocco & Pistella, 2019; Branstrom & van der Star, 2013). Health and social care professional education must cover LGBT+ issues to enable health and social care professionals to provide quality services free from sexual prejudice and discrimination. The present course aims to respond to the specific LGBT+ training needs for health and social care professionals to develop a culturally competent LGBTQ+ university curriculum. Moreover, there are numerous challenges that health and social care professionals must address and overcome in order to achieve more inclusive and supportive environments, such as overcoming ignorance and fear, lack of confidence, negative religious beliefs, cultural and personal views, and the lack of a learning culture that values diversity.

The prerequisites that are necessary at the beginning of the course concern the basic notions of general psychology and developmental psychology. The critical skills of comprehension and analysis of the text are required. A good level of creativity and divergent thinking is undoubtedly helpful in generating innovative and original strategies. On the other hand, a good level of motivation to learn and the willingness to work in groups is essential. Preparation for other courses is not foreseen.

Viola, A. (2022). Il sesso è (quasi) tutto. Evoluzione, diversità e medicina di genere. Feltrinelli (137 pagine). Slides provided by the teacher (classroom).

Attendance is mandatory.

The exam method will be a written exam with closed-ended questions on the recommended book and the slides provided in class. The duration of the written test will be approximately 10-15 minutes.

Baiocco, R. (2019). Rosa Azzurro, arcobaleno. Identità di genere e orientamento sessuale. Roma: GEDI. Baiocco, R., Busacca, A., de Filippis, B. (2018). Unioni civili e genitorialità: le nuove frontiere della giurisprudenza. Interesse del minore e genitorialità same sex. Vicenza: Wolters Kluwer. Baiocco, R., Pezzella, A., Pistella, J., Kouta, C., Rousou, E., Rocamora-Perez, P., ... & Papadopoulos, I. (2021). LGBT+ training needs for health and social care professionals: A cross-cultural comparison among seven Europe-an countries. Sexuality research and social policy, 1-15. Nimbi, F. M., Giovanardi, G., Baiocco, R., Tanzilli, A., & Lingiardi, V. (2023). Monkeypox: New epidemic or fake news? Study of psychological and social factors associated with fake news attitudes of monkeypox in Ita-ly. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. Rosati, F., Lorusso, M. M., Pistella, J., Giovanardi, G., Di Giannantonio, B., Mirabella, M., ... & Baiocco, R. (2022). Non-Binary Clients’ Experiences of Psychotherapy: Uncomfortable and Affirmative Approaches. International Jour-nal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(22), 15339.

The course includes a combination of different teaching models. Slides (PowerPoint presentations) will be used for each lesson. Before the start of the lessons, the slides will be available on the Moodle page of the course. The practical activity will be organized in individual work or small groups and will be conducted in the final course part (online or asynchronous activities).