Meet your LGBT+ advocates
Advocates for our LGBT+ staff network are sharing their stories with us here. We are launching the first of our advocate stories for IDAHOBIT Day – the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (17 May 2023). Please read on to hear from Hen and Jo and watch this space for other first-person accounts from our LGBT+ network, representing the diversity of what makes us who we are:
Jo has worked for DCHS over a year and comes from Sheffield, she joined the LGBT+ network not long after joining the trust. Jo works for the Rapid Response Therapy Team as an Advanced Support Worker and is an Openly Gay Woman within her team and the trust. As the LGBT+ Staff Networks Gay Woman Advocate she would like to make others feel heard and welcome within DCHS. Whether they are openly gay, or struggling with their sexuality or sexual Identity. Jo wants to be a person that staff can trust, a listening ear, and someone who can be a voice to speak out against Homophobia, micro aggressions and prejudice that Gay people so often face, which can be a barrier to people coming out and being themselves in their place of work.
Jo wants to be approachable to all, and wishes everyone to be accepted for themselves within DCHS and the wider community that we work for. In the role for Gay women advocate, Jo wants to support anyone and hopes to make anyone who reaches out, feel listened to, welcome and able to be their true self.
Jo loves music, walking the dog, photography, and Yorkshire Tea!!
Warren has worked for DCHS since 2020 but been in the NHS since 2004.
I am a Qualified District Nurse working within a community nursing team with Amber valley.
As the LGBT+ staff networks Gay male advocate, I want to make the voices of my peers heard and welcome within DCHS and the wider community.
The NHS has changed over the years to become more diverse and inclusive, but we still have a way to go. I feel that I can do my part to help by providing a listening ear and to advocate for patient and staff who do not have the confident to speak out for themselves.
Warren in his spare time can be found walking his cocker spaniel in the peak district or a weekend away in his campervan.