NSW Health Pathology is proud to be partnering with ACON as part of our ongoing work under the NSW Health LGBTQIA+ Strategy.

ACON is Australia’s lead­ing LGBTQIA+ com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tion and recent­ly, NSW Health Pathol­o­gy par­tic­i­pat­ed for the third time in ACON’s annu­al Health + Well­be­ing Equal­i­ty Index (HWEI).

The index assess­es and bench­marks LGBTQIA+ inclu­sive ser­vice deliv­ery among health, well­be­ing and human ser­vice providers.

At the recent Aus­tralian Pride in Health + Well­be­ing Awards cer­e­mo­ny held by ACON, NSW Health Pathol­o­gy was incred­i­bly proud to be recog­nised as Australia’s only sil­ver ser­vice provider for LGBTQIA+ inclu­sion in the health category.

In order to achieve the sil­ver sta­tus NSW Health Pathol­o­gy need­ed to obtain high scores in the HWEI and pro­vide evi­dence of a sub­stan­tial amount of sus­tained or new work in this area.

ACON said NSW Health Pathol­o­gy is con­sid­ered to have been high­ly active in our inclu­sion of sex­u­al­i­ty and gen­der diverse com­mu­ni­ties in com­par­i­son to the nation­al bench­mark for the assessed year.

Our Pre-Ana­lyt­i­cal team has been instru­men­tal in achiev­ing this out­come for NSW Health Pathol­o­gy, ensur­ing that our col­lec­tions staff are pro­vid­ing a safe and inclu­sive expe­ri­ence for every­one who access­es our services.

“We achieved bronze sta­tus for the first time last year, and it is a marked achieve­ment to progress to the sil­ver sta­tus with­in a year,” said Jes­si­ca Lee, Deputy Direc­tor Strate­gic HR and Projects at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy and Exec­u­tive Co-Spon­sor of the LGBTQIA+ Strat­e­gy. (pic­tured above left)

“This reflects our ongo­ing ded­i­ca­tion and sup­port to mak­ing NSW Health Pathol­o­gy an inclu­sive envi­ron­ment for LGBTQIA+ patients and staff.

“One of the key improve­ments rolled out in the last 12 months is the LGBTQIA+ Inclu­sion Train­ing for our front­line fac­ing staff which focus­es on edu­cat­ing and sup­port­ing our staff on how to pro­vide safe, inclu­sive care for LGBTQIA+ peo­ple when they vis­it our service.

“This is sup­port­ed by the Wel­come Affir­ma­tion cards we offer in our col­lec­tion cen­tres which alert staff that a patient’s med­ical records may not match their cho­sen name.”

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy also dis­plays inclu­sion posters and oth­er rain­bow sym­bols of inclu­sion in patient-fac­ing areas.

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy Chief Exec­u­tive Vanes­sa Janis­sen said she was proud to be lead­ing an organ­i­sa­tion that is cre­at­ing an envi­ron­ment where all patients and col­leagues feel safe and welcome.

“Pathol­o­gy ser­vices are often someone’s first con­tact with the NSW Health sys­tem, and we set the tone for their expe­ri­ence. We need to be wel­com­ing and safe,” Vanes­sa said.

“Each June dur­ing Pride Month is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to cel­e­brate our diver­si­ty and fos­ter a sense of belonging.”

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