Volume 66 Number 4  September 1999	back to contents

The Hispanic, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and HIV-Infected Experience in Health Care	263 - 266
Milton L. Wainberg, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Director, Behavioral Health, HIV/AIDS Center, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, NY. Address correspondence to Milton L. Wainberg, M.D., Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032.

ABSTRACT
This presentation, relying both on personal experience and an array of studies, surveys the problems minorities face in trying to obtain adequate health care. From another viewpoint, these are problems that physicians have in trying to provide health care to persons they do not understand and cannot really see or hear. And the problems multiply when the patient is a minority in more than one sense. The gay, Hispanic, HIV+ patient, for example, is removed from the average physician's comprehension to a degree that is itself almost incomprehensible. Treating patients as they ought to be treated requires that physicians overcome many layers of prejudice and unfounded assumptions. Failure to overcome such prejudices distorts medical practice.

KEY WORDS
 Gay, lesbian, homosexuality, homophobia, racism, Hispanic, health care access, psychiatric population

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