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Total Health Includes Mental Health

The LGBTQ community has specific mental and behavioral health needs that service providers should be aware of. Most mainstream behavioral health services are not currently providing LGBTQ clients with culturally responsive and affirming care.

We are urging mental and behavioral health providers to evaluate their services and approaches, in order to address LGBTQ individuals in a way that is affirming, non-judgmental, and compassionate.

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LGBTQ Competent and Affirming Care is Critical

We surveyed Network member organizations to ask about their clients’ experiences in behavioral health facilities.

53% of organizations reported that more than half of their clients had negative experiences in mainstream behavioral health facilities (51-100%), due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.

More specifically, organizations report that their clients face:

  • A lack of culturally responsive care (84%)
  • Misgendering (name, pronouns, housing assignment, etc.) (76%)
  • Intake forms that are not inclusive (57%)
  • Denial of care, due to sexual orientation or gender identity (31%)

To help combat this, The Network has created a video series featuring the members of our coalition, speaking to how service providers can improve their cultural sensitivity. One of the six videos will be released daily on November 18-23, 2019. Follow @NYSLGBTNetwork on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

The videos discuss the following key messages:

  • The need for cultural sensitivity training
  • The impact of historical racism and trauma
  • The cost of not understanding the needs of your LGBTQ clients
  • The importance of accessing and destigmatizing mental health care
  • The value of conducting early mental health screening
  • The ways to align providers’ perceptions of quality of services with clients’ experiences
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Karen Naimool (all pronouns)
Director at National LGBT Cancer Network
“LGBTQ people need safe and affirming care, especially when it comes to mental health, and one of the best ways for mental health providers to understand the needs of the LGBTQ clients is through cultural competency training.”

WATCH THE VIDEO

Vijou Bryant (she/her, they/them, siya)
Coordinator at Apicha Community Health Center
“The need to provide culturally competent care for communities that have experienced historical racism and trauma through that racism is incredibly important […] we’re really pushing and urging care that will respond to communities.”

WATCH THE VIDEO

Yi Zhou (she/her)
Psychotherapist at Rainbow Access Initiative
“Often times, when clients come to your office, they expect you to already know what they need. It’s not their responsibility to educate you or take on the emotional labor that’s needed to fill in the gap in your knowledge base. So don’t let your clients do your job.”

WATCH THE VIDEO

Furness Norton (he/him)
Therapist at Institute for Human Identity
“It’s important to recognize that addressing mental health needs are equivalent to on-going physical health care routine. Mental health includes the way that we emotionally process, speak about different situations, particularly issues when it comes to discrimination based on gender identity or sexuality that we may face every day.”

WATCH THE VIDEO

Chris Wolf-Gould (he/him)
Family Physician at Bassett Gender Wellness Center
“It’s very important that we screen, as primary care providers, all patients 12 years and older for depression […] because studies show that early treatment can reduce morbidity of depression. This is especially true for our LGBTQ patients, because they’ve experienced societal trauma and societal stigma, and this puts them at increased risk at suffering from depression.”

WATCH THE VIDEO

Lyndon Cudlitz (he/him, they/them)
LGBTQ Trainer & Consultant
“When working with mental and behavioral health providers, I find that most really want to be providing great comprehensive services for queer and trans individuals, and most believe they already do. However, when we talk to LGBTQ communities across New York State, we find that people aren’t having the experiences they want to be having with their providers.”

WATCH THE VIDEO

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Get Support

The New York State LGBT Health and Human Services Network (The Network) is a coalition of LGBTQ+ non-profit organizations that provide holistic health care, education, legal and social services to LGBTQ+ communities in New York, beyond HIV/AIDS. Our mission is to eliminate physical and mental health disparities across the LGBQ and TGNCNB communities and to dismantle systems of oppression that limit access to care. To learn more, visit gaycenter.org/thenetwork.

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