NATIONAL NURSES WEEK
Trans Volunteer Bolsters Battered Hospital Morgue
GMHC advocacy and outreach coordinator steps up in the Bronx during COVID-19 crisis
Ashley Phillips (in red) stands with others who are working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
BY MATT TRACY
Ashley Phillips spends her weekdays
as a coordinator of advocacy and
outreach at Gay Men’s Health Crisis
(GMHC), but when the work day is
over, you can fi nd her in the basement at Lincoln
Hospital in the Mott Haven section of the
Bronx.
ASHLEY PHILLIPS
For the past month, Phillips has dedicated
her evenings and weekends to volunteering at
the hospital’s morgue, sacrifi cing her free time
to take on a role she never expected — and one
she didn’t know she could tolerate.
But now, Phillips, who says she thinks of
herself as “the only trans person who has ever
wanted to work in the morgue,” is at the hospital
seven days a week, sometimes working
alone, organizing bodies of individuals who
succumbed to the coronavirus. The virus put
such a sudden strain on hospitals that offi cials
were struggling to keep up with demand. Hospital
staff accustomed to seeing just two deaths
a week were suddenly seeing 20 a week.
That’s where Phillips stepped in and sought
to right the ship.
“I went in and noticed it was chaotic,” Phillips
said, describing her fi rst day volunteering
at the morgue. She was fi rst tasked with setting
up inventory. “It was not structured and I can’t
work without structure. It was just bodies put
in there, with wrong names on the outside of
bags.”
Phillips said she took matters into her
own hands, establishing an organized workfl
ow structure, complete with Microsoft Excel
spreadsheets, and reporting back to a central
offi ce to coordinate the morgue’s operations.
Phillips offered a glimpse into the important
volunteer work that is being carried out behind
the scenes, far away from the spotlight. On a
given whirlwind of a night, she is identifying
bodies by making sure the name on the outside
of the bag matches the name on the individual’s
armband. At the same time, a half-dozen additional
bodies fi ll into the morgue, all while
➤ ASHLEY PHILLIPS, continued on p.17
SAGE Launches Citywide Survey of LGBTQ Seniors
Visiting Nurses help identify health and social needs of queer people 55 years and older
BY MATT TRACY
Advocacy & Services for
LGBT Elders (SAGE)
and the Visiting Nurse
Service of New York
(VNSNY) Center for Home Care
Policy and Research are conducting
a citywide survey of LGBTQ
New Yorkers 55 years and older in
an effort to determine the health
and social needs of queer seniors
across the fi ve boroughs.
The survey, which can be fi lled
out at tinyurl.com/y8zrob26, is being
carried out as part of a broader
nationwide campaign dubbed the
Advantage Initiative, a research cffort
that seeks to understand the
way older adults perceive and experience
their own communities,
to pinpoint barriers to aging, and
to plan ways to address those barriers.
“In order to best serve our community,
we need to hear directly
from the voices that look to SAGE
as a space where they can continue
to form connections and fi nd
opportunities to fl ourish,” SAGE’s
executive vice president Lynn Faria
said in a written statement. “It is
our responsibility as a community
to learn about and understand the
needs of our LGBTQ elders, so we
can provide suffi ciently comprehensive
services and resources
that allow the members of our
community to thrive.”
However, the survey, which is
anonymous, is — for now, at least
— being conducted exclusively online,
which could exclude the feedback
of signifi cant numbers of seniors
who lack internet access or
the technological know-how for accessing
the online survey. The survey
is also only being carried out
in English and Spanish, potentially
preventing the inclusion of New
Yorkers a different language.
The results of the survey will
be used not only to identify health
and social needs, but also to develop
a “blueprint” to help shape future
SAGE programs and services.
The fi ndings could shine a light on
issues that have plagued queer seniors
during the coronavius crisis.
The community has already seen
an exacerbation of social isolation,
food insecurity, and technological
barriers since the coronavirus interrupted
daily life in March.
“For many LGBTQ elders in New
York City, the COVID-19 pandemic
awakens deep-seated fears and
memories of negative experiences
with access to care that began in
the 1980s and ‘90s with the plague
of HIV/ AIDS,” Arthur Fitting, the
Visiting Nurse LGBTQ program director,
said in a written statement.
“SAGE and VNSNY developed this
survey to reveal and more clearly
understand critical concerns that
older members of the LGBTQ community
are struggling with, not
only in the midst of this public
health crisis, but every day.”
May 7 - May 20, 2 16 020 | GayCityNews.com
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