Old age does not stop at people who fall outside the heteronormative grid - experts from Ludwigshafen, Berlin, Karlsruhe and Marburg have now dedicated the first German-language textbook to this topic, which deals with the age(ing) of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people: "LSBTIQ* und Alter(n). A textbook for care and social work", edited by Ludwigshafen health scientist Regina Brunnett together with Tamara-Louise Zeyen, Ralf Lottmann and Mechthild Kiegelmann, has now been published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in Göttingen.
What does the slogan "Age is colorful" mean for age-related professions? A practical example: a person who was born a boy and has been living as a woman for decades applies for a place in an assisted living dormitory in a small town. The team asks itself: How can the facility do justice to her?
Case studies of this kind underline the practice-oriented approach of the textbook - they come from interviews with those affected or from practical work. How do people with different sexual orientations and genders age? How can they be supported by institutions providing assistance and care for the elderly? According to the introduction, such questions have "increasingly become the focus of public attention in the course of social change in recent decades". Society is getting older, while at the same time the diversity of older people is increasing. This demands new skills from professionals in elderly care and nursing facilities.
The book takes this into account with detailed chapters on basic and cross-sectional topics as well as examples of application, with the publishing team placing "particular emphasis on perspectives from the communities and references to practical facilities and existing services".
"The practice-oriented structure of the articles focuses on professional action", states the introduction. The textbook is intended for training, studies and further education, but also for supporting practice in elderly care in order to "promote needs-based and human rights-oriented work with older people".
A team of experts from the social sciences has come together to publish the textbook: Professor Dr. Regina Brunnett teaches health sciences at the Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society. The social pedagogue and social psychologist Dr. Mechthild Kiegelmann holds a professorship at the Karlsruhe University of Education. Sociologist and gerontologist Dr. Ralf Lottmann conducts research at the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin (ASH Berlin). Educational scientist Tamara-Louise Zeyen is a research assistant in the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Education at Philipps University Marburg. She is currently writing a dissertation on "Housing projects for people of the same sex in old age".
Image rights book cover: Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Download:https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/lsbtiq
Further information:
Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society
Professor Dr. Regina Brunnett
Department of Social and Health Care
Tel.: 0621 5203-583
regina.brunnett@ 8< SPAM protection, please remove >8 hwg-lu.de
Tamara-Louise Zeyen,
Philipps University of Marburg
Tel.: 06421-2824529
E-mail: tamara-louise.zeyen@ 8< SPAM protection, please remove >8 staff.uni-marburg.de
Dr. Ralf Lottmann
Alice-Salomon-Hochschule Berlin
E-mail: ralf.lottmann@ 8< SPAM protection, please remove >8 posteo.de
Professor Dr. Mechthild Kiegelmann
Karlsruhe University of Education
Phone: 0721 925-4928
Email: mechthild.kiegelmann@ 8< SPAM protection, please remove >8 ph-karlsruhe.de
