Pennsylvania-based behavioral-health system Devereux announced this week it is expanding its partnership with the educational arm of the Human Rights Campaign.
The HRC Foundation will work with staff across Devereux’s 12-state operations to ensure optimum LGBT-inclusive policies and standards. Devereux, whose national headquarters are in Villanova, is one of the largest providers of behavioral-health care in the nation, and works with individuals across the lifespan with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as children, adolescents and teens with behavioral-health struggles.
The company’s Arizona operation first started a partnership with HRC in 2009, through the LGBT organization’s All Children-All Families initiative, which enhances child-welfare agencies’ preparedness in working with LGBT youth.
Now, HRC Foundation will work with all of Devereux’s sites.
“They are visionaries in the issue of health-care inequality for LGBTQ youth,” said Leah Yaw, senior vice president of external affairs at Devereux. “We began in Arizona and decided to spread that work throughout the whole organization.”
Yaw said the agency has already begun examining how to enhance LGBT equality in its human-resources policies, and will also explore its client policies.
“Devereux’s goal overall is to be a welcoming and affirming employer and provider to the LGBTQ community,” Yaw said. “The policies we’ve looked at have to do with HR — making sure we’re a welcoming employer, issues like partner benefits. We’ve gotten very far in that work and happy with the progress we’ve made. We’ll also be working over time on our clinical and operational procedures to make sure we’re the provider of choice for LGBTQ youth.”
Yaw added that the partnership will ideally motivate other health-care providers, especially those that work with LGBT youth, to undertake similar initiatives.
“We know as an industry that LGBTQ youth are far-overrepresented in foster care and deal with issues of bullying and isolation at a far higher rate than non-LGBTQ youth. We really believe that health-care parity and ensuring systems of care understand these challenges and are prepared to address them is critical. We hope to lead the way and be a model for other providers. We’re glad to be part of this work, which is the next equal-rights issue for coming generations.”
For more information about Devereux, visit www.devereux.org.