LGBTQ Care

Cooley Dickinson Health Care is committed to providing the highest standard of care for every individual in our community, at all points on the spectrums of gender and sexuality. We are dedicated to the inclusion of LGBTQ people in all aspects of our services–for patients, families and employees. We promote LGBTQ health equity and access to care through staff training, specialized services in transgender health, inclusive patient policies, and affirming benefits for our employees.

A Leader in Healthcare Equality
Cooley Dickinson is the only hospital in Western Massachusetts to be recognized as a leader in LGBTQ healthcare equality for the second year in a row, and was recently awarded the highest possible score on the 2019 Healthcare Equality Index.

J. Aleah Nesteby, MSN, FNP, is Cooley Dickinson Health Care’s Director of LGBTQ Health Services and a Family Nurse Practitioner at Oxbow Primary Care. She has spent the past decade working to ensure the availability of compassionate and non-judgmental healthcare for the LGBTQ community in Western Massachusetts. Prior to joining Cooley Dickinson Medical Group, Aleah worked for Baystate Health in Springfield, Mass., and before that in reproductive health and STI prevention in San Francisco, California.

Nesteby is a member of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH), and a provider-volunteer for the online peer-to-peer consultation service TransLine.

External resources are not in any way affiliated with or endorsed by CDHC, but links are provided as a community service to LGBTQ community members.

Additional Resources:

Massachusetts & National

• Rainbow Elders  (Franklin County)
• National LGBT Health Education Center (A Program of The Fenway Institute)
• LGBTQ Health, Pap Smears and STI Prevention Information
• UMass-Amherst Stonewall Center (LGBTQIA+ resorce center)
• Guidelines for the Primary and Gender-Affirming Care of Transgender and Gender Nonbinary People  (UCSF)
• Community Action Pioneer Valley (Generation Q)
• Out Now (LGBTQ Support Group for the Greater Springfield Area)
• The Trevor Project (Crisis Intervention/Suicide Prevention for LGBTQ Youth)
• Trans Lifeline (Emotional and practical/logistical support for trans people in crisis)
• A Positive Place (HIV/AIDS service agency serving the Pioneer Valley)

Connecticut 

• True Colors – (Community organization service LGBTQ youth in Hartford, CT)

New Hampshire 

• TLC Family Resource Center / Rural Outright (LGBTQ Community Organization, Peer Support, and Family Services in Claremont, NH)

Vermont 

• Out in the Open (LGBTQ Community Organization and Peer Support in Brattleboro, VT)

Upstate New York 

• Pride Center of the Capitol Region (LGBTQ Community Organization and Peer Support in Albany, NY
• Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center (LGBTQ Community Organization and Peer Support in Kingston, NY)

CONTACT: Transforming Parents (A community support group for parents of transgender children of any age)