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Supporting People > Understanding LGBTI Mental…

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  1. Introduction
  2. Understanding LGBTI Mental Health
  3. What is minority stress?
  4. Intersectionality
  5. Inequality = Seeking support from the community
  6. Reducing stigma and discrimination
  7. Supporting Someone with Their Mental Health
  8. Recovery-based approaches to supporting each other
  9. The art of listening
  10. From the community, for community leaders and those who wish to support others…
  11. Looking After Others by Looking After Yourself
  12. The effects of supporting people: burnout and compassion fatigue
  13. The importance of boundaries
  14. Self-Care
  15. Trauma Informed Approaches and Suicide Prevention
  16. Trauma-inform your thinking
  17. Suicide prevention
  18. Mental Health Resources
Report Chapters
  1. Introduction
  2. Understanding LGBTI Mental Health
  3. What is minority stress?
  4. Intersectionality
  5. Inequality = Seeking support from the community
  6. Reducing stigma and discrimination
  7. Supporting Someone with Their Mental Health
  8. Recovery-based approaches to supporting each other
  9. The art of listening
  10. From the community, for community leaders and those who wish to support others…
  11. Looking After Others by Looking After Yourself
  12. The effects of supporting people: burnout and compassion fatigue
  13. The importance of boundaries
  14. Self-Care
  15. Trauma Informed Approaches and Suicide Prevention
  16. Trauma-inform your thinking
  17. Suicide prevention
  18. Mental Health Resources

Supporting People

Understanding LGBTI Mental Health

Being LGBTI does not cause poor mental health, but the impacts of stigma, discrimination, and prejudice impact on the wellbeing of LGBTI people.

What is stigma?
“Stigma is the negative attitudes or assumptions which a person can hold about themself or others based on a characteristic or quality”.[1]
What is discrimination?
“Discrimination is the unfair or unjust treatment of a person or group”.[2]

There are higher rates of anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug use, eating disorders, self-harm and suicide amongst the LGBT population.[3] We know that these relate to social factors including biphobia, lesbophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and interphobia[4] and the lack of ability to speak openly about gender identity, sexual orientation,[5] or bodily diversity. A systematic review[6] found that ‘the majority of the available evidence links [the] disproportionately high incidence of mental health problems to experiences of prejudice and minority stress.’[7]

LGB people are twice as likely to report symptoms of poor mental health than heterosexual adults.[8]

In the UK, LGB adults were around twice as likely to have attempted suicide in their lifetime. Half of LGBT youth had experienced suicidal thoughts and actions.[9]

40% of non-binary people considered themselves to have a long-term mental health problem.[10]

Trans people experience much higher rates of self- harm and suicide both in comparison to the general population and to the rest of the LGB community.[11]

88% of trans people showed symptoms of depression. 75% showed symptoms of anxiety (compared to 20% of people in the UK general population). Trans youth experience even higher rates of poor mental health.[12]

Subsections

  1. What is minority stress?
  2. Intersectionality
  3. Inequality = Seeking support from the community
  4. Reducing stigma and discrimination

Footnotes

  1. See Me, ‘Communities Can: A Toolkit For Tackling Mental Health Stigma’ (PDF). [Accessed 20/05/2021] (Return to reference [1])
  2. See Me, ‘Communities Can: A Toolkit For Tackling Mental Health Stigma’ (PDF). [Accessed 20/05/2021] (Return to reference [2])
  3. Hagell A, Shah R, Coleman J. (2017) ‘Key data on young people 2017’. Association for Young People’s Health (Return to reference [3])
  4. More research is desperately needed to help us understand the effect (if any) of having a Variation in Sex Characteristics and of a lack of awareness within society of I/VSC issues upon mental health. The research that we reference throughout these resources are not inclusive of ‘intersex’ or variations in sex characteristics (I/VSC and the ‘I’ in LGBTI). We know, due to our own work with stakeholders in this area that people who are intersex or who have a VSC do face prejudice and hate crimes due to being considered ‘different’ because they are I/VSC. However, because we have no official data specifically on mental health in relation to being I/VSC we cannot include the ‘I’ consistently throughout this resource. Where the ‘I’ is missing, we have no source of reference to point towards or are not aware of work done in this area. (Return to reference [4])
  5. McDermott E, Hughes E, Rawlings V. (2018) ‘The social determinant of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth suicidality in England: a mixed methods study’ (PDF). J Public Health 2018;40:244- 5110.1093/pubmed/fdx135; (Return to reference [5])
  6. Spence, C. w/ LGBT Youth Scotland, LGBT Health and Wellbeing, Scottish Trans, Equality Network, LGBT Youth Scotland, Stonewall Scotland (2018) ‘LGBT Populations and Mental Health Inequality’ (Return to reference [6])
  7. Spence, C. w/ LGBT Youth Scotland, LGBT Health and Wellbeing, Scottish Trans, Equality Network, LGBT Youth Scotland, Stonewall Scotland (2018) ‘LGBT Populations and Mental Health Inequality’ (Return to reference [7])
  8. Semlyen, J, King, M., Varney, J., and Hagger-Johnson, G. (2016). ‘Sexual Orientation and Symptoms of Common Mental Disorder or Low Wellbeing; Combined Meta-Analysis of 12 UK Population Health Surveys’. BMC Psychiatry, 16: 67. (Return to reference [8])
  9. King, M., Semlyen, J., Tai, S.S., Killaspy, H., Osborn, D. Popelyuk, D. and Nazareth, I. (2008). ‘A Systematic Review of Mental Disorder, Suicide, and Deliberate Self-Harm in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People’. BMC Psychiatry, 8: 70 (Return to reference [9])
  10. Valentine, V. (2016). ‘Non-Binary People’s Experiences in the UK’ (PDF). Scottish Trans Alliance. (Return to reference [10])
  11. McNeil, J., Bailey, J. Ellis, S., Morton, J and Regan, M. (2012). ‘Trans Mental Health Study 2012’ (PDF). Scottish Trans Alliance. (Return to reference [11])
  12. Bridger, S., Bradlow, J., Guasp, A., and Jadva, V. (2017). ‘School Report Scotland’ (PDF). Stonewall Scotland. (Return to reference [12])

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Equality Network is a national lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) equality and human rights charity.

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