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Mental health matters
LGBT+ mental health news articles and reports
News articles
LGBT+ young people disproportionately experience depression, anxiety and panic attacks | ITV News | 25 Apr 2021
Will Young on prep school, PTSD and psychotherapy: ‘Shame doesn’t help anything’ | The Guardian | 26 Apr 2021
Lockdown, quarantine and self-isolation: how different COVID restrictions affect our mental health | The Conversation | 20 Jan 2021
How to help someone you live with who has depression | The Conversation | 3 Jul 2020
Mental Health Awareness: Keeping your screen time healthy | BBC News | 20 May 2020
Coping with anxiety, trauma and dissociation during lockdown | Metro Charity | 18 May 2020
The gay community’s obsession with status and looks has huge mental health costs | Them | US | 7 Apr 2020
Pressure to keep up: status imbalance a major factor in stress in gay men | The Guardian | 29 Feb 2020
When Tugay realised he was gay, he tried to erase his sexuality with an extreme form of his religion | BBC 3 | 1 May 2019
Mental health care responses are failing LGBT people - some ideas... | Mental Health Today | 23 Aug 2018
'I can't be myself': elderly LGBT people face isolation and stigma in care homes and hospitals | Huff Post | 21 Jul 2018
Why young LGBT people need alcohol-free safe spaces | BBC News | 28 Jun 2018
Why London’s LGBT communities need their own base more than ever | The Guardian | 21 Jun 2018
We need to talk about how Grindr is affecting gay men’s mental health | Vox | 4 Apr 2018
Adverts for LGBT mental health service ‘crass and exploitative' | Pink News | 16 Feb 2018
Time to talk 2018: What it’s like to deal with mental health issues when you’re LGBT, and how to find the help you need | Pink News | 1 Feb 2018
How to cope when you're gay and lonely | GQ | 10 Jan 2018
World Health Organisation definition of mental health
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), mental health is "a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community". WHO stresses that mental health "is not just the absence of mental disorder".
LGBT people are prone to mental illness | The Guardian | 12 May 2017
Reports
London Assembly Health Committee LGBT+ Mental Health, 2017
The London Assembly Health Committee has published its findings and recommendations to the Mayor of London on how he can provide better mental health support for LGBT+ people. The report says
- Up to one in ten Londoners (over 800,000 people) identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or other definitions of sexual orientation or gender identity
- Around 40 per cent of LGBT+ people experience a mental health issue, compared to 25 per cent of the wider population
- LGBT+ people are often overlooked when health commissioning decisions are made because of a lack of data and poor consultation.
Generic mental health services are not meeting the current needs of LGBT+ people - Without specialist support LGBT+ people will continue to experience mental health inequality, stigma and discrimination
LGBT+ mental health | London Assembly Health Committee | 1 Feb 2017
Stonewall's Gay and Bisexual Men's Health Survey, 2013
Stonewall’s Gay and Bisexual Men’s Health Survey 2013 asked respondents a set of questions widely used by health professionals that help determine whether someone is experiencing depression or anxiety at that time and found that:
- One in seven (13%) gay and bisexual men are currently experiencing moderate to severe levels of mixed depression and anxiety compared to 7% of men in general.
- A further 9% of gay and bisexual men are experiencing moderate to severe levels of depression with mild or no anxiety compared to 2% of men in general.
- Thus overall, 22% of gay and bisexual men are experiencing moderate to severe levels of depression.
- Bisexual men are more likely to experience moderate to severe levels of depression (26%).
- 4% of gay and bisexual men are experiencing moderate to severe anxiety with mild or no depression.
In the last year, 3% of gay men have attempted to take their own life.This increases to 5% for bisexual men and to 5% for black and minority ethnic gay and bisexual men. In the same period, 0.4% of all men attempted to take their own life.- One in ten (10%) gay and bisexual men aged 16 to 19 have attempted to take their own life in the last year. One in sixteen (6%) gay and bisexual men aged 16 to 24 have attempted to take their own life in the last year. In the same period, 0.7% of all men aged 16 to 24 have attempted to take their own life.
- In the last year, 27% of gay men thought about taking their own life even if they would not do it. This increases to 38% for bisexual men and 35% for black and minority ethnic gay and bisexual men. Just 4% of men in general thought about taking their own life in the last year.
- Half (50%) of gay and bisexual men said they have felt life was not worth living compared to 17% of men in general. Almost half (46%) of gay and bisexual men who have felt this way did so in the last year.
With 6,861 respondents from across Britain, this is the largest survey ever conducted of gay and bisexual men’s health needs in the world. However, it demonstrates that many of those needs are not being met and that there are areas of significant concern – most particularly in mental health and drug use – that have been overlooked by health services which too often focus solely on gay men’s sexual health.
Gay and Bisexual Men's Health Survey 2013 | Stonewall
Mental Health Briefing | Stonewall
Through the Rainbow Lens | Kings College London | 11 Apr 2017 | 32m 53
In the summer of 2016 members of the LGBT+ community at King’s College London came together with researchers, service providers, film makers, and diversity and inclusion specialists, with the aims of exploring mental health issues affecting the LGBT+ community. This film is the result.
