The Experiences of Older LGBTQIA+ People Navigating, Accessing, and/or Receiving Health and Social Care Services: A Scoping Review

Older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other sexual and gender minority (LGBT+) individuals have been subject to discrimination throughout their lives, particularly when accessing health and social care services (HSC). A breadth of literature examines the experiences of the LGBT+ population, but research on ageing LGBT+ adults’ experiences in HSC is a gap. This scoping review explores the experiences of older LGBT+ adults regarding the barriers and facilitators when accessing, receiving and navigating health and social care services across settings. Empirical research studies that recruited LGBT+ populations were included, where sexual orientation and gender identity were central to the question. Studies had to have recruited participants with a mean age of 60 years or over to be included. Only studies published in the English language were included due to translation costs. Scopus, CINAHL, Social Services Abstracts, Web of Science Core, Medline, APA PsycINFO, and Social Policy and Practice were searched in August 2026. Rayyan was used to manage the screening process. Data extraction was conducted independently by two authors before finalising the data extraction table. Overall, 5169 hits were identified, which were reduced to 2490 after duplicates were removed. 2490 titles and abstracts were screened, and 813 full texts were screened. Following full-text screening, 82 articles were included from the database searches alongside one article from citation searching. Themes that emerged included the anticipated and directly experienced barriers, the facilitators and the potential solutions to older LGBT+ adults accessing, receiving and navigating health and social care services.