Gaps in health care remain a problem in communities across Colorado, according to One Colorado, an advocacy group for the LGBTQ community, which held an informational and educational session Sunday in Durango.
Sarah Clark, organizing manager for One Colorado said complaints about access to competent health care, especially mental and behavioral care, remains one of the major problems she hears about in cities and towns across Colorado during the group’s statewide informational and educational tour.
“It’s humongous; it’s the biggest problem we hear about,” she said.
According to One Colorado’s 2018 health survey of the LGBTQ community, of the LGBTQ respondents, 61% reported a lack of adequately trained mental and behavioral health providers in their community. The number was an increase from 58% who reported the same problem in 2011, the last time One Colorado conducted its LGBTQ health survey.
For transgendered individuals, 84% of 2018 respondents reported a lack of adequately trained mental and behavioral health providers. That compared to 65% of respondents who reported the same problem in 2011.
The LGBTQ community also struggles with getting insurance to pay for surgeries that are often considered cosmetic in nature but are vital to transgendered individuals.
“An Adam’s apple for a transgendered woman might be a life-threatening situation when transgender woman are dying on the streets every day,” Clark said.
The One Colorado meeting held Sunday at the Durango Community Recreational Center was the group’s sixth meeting this year in a statewide tour.
parmijo@durangoherald.com