The GLBT Health Task Group is a true grass-roots organization founded by individuals who saw the need to address the special wellness needs of GLBT people. After several broad community consultations, a core Task Group, which included members of the PTS Board of Directors, developed the project concept and sought funding. The Task Group decided to partner with Pink Triangle Services (PTS) for the project. The Task Group believed that PTS had the infrastructure, place in the community, and the same concern for wellness to make it an official sponsor.
Pink Triangle Services (PTS), a social service agency and charitable non-profit organization, has been operating since 1984 when it grew out of Gays of Ottawa. Its services include: the Gayline (238-1717), the nation's longest-operating gay per support line; a wide variety of discussion and peer support groups for GLB people; a resource centre of over 4,000 volumes; and, a youth program. It has presented anti-homophobia workshops for the Ottawa Police, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the Red Cross, and to all Regional Health employees. The AIDS Committee of Ottawa was founded in 1985 as a sub-committee of PTS.
The GLBT Wellness Project views wellness and health as more than treatment of specific illnesses. It is a holistic approach that acknowledges that many factors other than specific health care concerns contribute to the wellness of specific populations. These factors are broad and interrelated. They include such factors as lifestyle, social support, behaviours, socioeconomic status, and environment.
Improving wellness includes not only health care, but increasing the capacity of communities to create greater wellness for their members and to assist them to develop personal skills that foster wellness. In this sense, the GLBT people can be identified as a "population" with special wellness needs that must be addressed. We would hope that these are identified through our needs assessment and that the report of the project will lead to strategies as to how we can foster wellness for the GLBT population.
To strengthen the Ottawa- Carleton health care system's ability to foster the development of comprehensive, culturally appropriate health promotion policies and health care services for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people through a variety of venues including:
To create partnerships between the Ottawa-Carleton community-based health and human services agencies, and the GLBT communities to:
Last updated: 2 May 00