Recent increases in homophobic and transphobic harassment, hate crimes, anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender nonconforming, and queer (LGBTQ+) legislation, and discrimination in healthcare toward LGBTQ+ persons require urgent attention.

This study describes seriously ill LGBTQ+ patients’ and partners’ experiences of discriminatory care delivered by healthcare providers.

Qualitative data from a mixed-methods study using an online survey were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Seriously ill LGBTQ+ persons, their spouses/partners and widows were recruited from a wide range of organizations serving the LGBTQ+ community. Respondents were asked to describe instances where they felt they received poor care from a healthcare provider because they were LGBTQ+.

Six main themes emerged: (1) disrespectful care; (2) inadequate care; (3) abusive care; (4) discriminatory care toward persons who identify as transgender; (5) discriminatory behaviors toward partners; and (6) intersectional discrimination. The findings provide evidence that some LGBTQ+ patients receive poor care at a vulnerable time in their lives. Transgender patients experience unique forms of discrimination that disregard or belittle their identity.

Professional associations, accrediting bodies, and healthcare organizations should set standards for nondiscriminatory, respectful, competent, safe and affirming care for LGBTQ+ patients. Healthcare organizations should implement mechanisms for identifying problems and ensuring nondiscrimination in services and employment; safety for patients and staff; strategies for outreach and marketing to the LGBTQ+ community, and ongoing staff training to ensure high quality care for LGBTQ+ patients, partners, families, and friends. Policy actions are needed to combat discrimination and disparities in healthcare, including passage of the Equality Act by Congress.

This study attempted to replicate whether a bias in probabilistic reasoning, or ‘jumping to conclusions’(JTC) bias is associated with being a sibling of a patient with schizophrenia spectrum disorder; and if so, whether this association is contingent on subthreshold delusional ideation.

Data were derived from the EUGEI project, a 25-centre, 15-country effort to study psychosis spectrum disorder. The current analyses included 1261 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, 1282 siblings of patients and 1525 healthy comparison subjects, recruited in Spain (five centres), Turkey (three centres) and Serbia (one centre). The beads task was used to assess JTC bias. Lifetime experience of delusional ideation and hallucinatory experiences was assessed using the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences. General cognitive abilities were taken into account in the analyses.

JTC bias was positively associated not only with patient status but also with sibling status [adjusted relative risk (aRR) ratio : 4.23 CI 95% 3.46–5.17 for siblings and aRR: 5.07 CI 95% 4.13–6.23 for patients]. The association between JTC bias and sibling status was stronger in those with higher levels of delusional ideation (aRR interaction in siblings: 3.77 CI 95% 1.67–8.51, and in patients: 2.15 CI 95% 0.94–4.92). The association between JTC bias and sibling status was not stronger in those with higher levels of hallucinatory experiences.

These findings replicate earlier findings that JTC bias is associated with familial liability for psychosis and that this is contingent on the degree of delusional ideation but not hallucinations.