Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Youth: A Community Based Participatory Study

Current research suggests that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queer (LGBTQ) youth are at risk for a number of mental health issues. LGBTQ youth also experience additional stress during their adolescence due to their sexual minority status making it more difficult for LGBTQ youth to fully integrate a positive self-image. Additionally, evidence suggests that homophobia and discrimination play a major role in mental health issues among LGBTQ youth. Despite this increased risk, LGBTQ youth, as a group, have been historically underserved in health care. Hence, LGBTQ youth struggle finding services tailored to their specific needs. This project utilizes a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach that incorporates a social justice perspective to examine mental health issues for LGBTQ youth by exploring the mental health strengths and needs of local LGBTQ youth. Work to date consists of running focus groups of LGBTQ youth as well as running separate focus groups of professionals deemed to be competent in providing sensitive mental health services to LGBTQ youth. The results that emerged present the mental health strengths and needs of the youth from their own and their allies' perspectives. Additionally, both the youth and mental health professionals' address perceptions of the existence of local programs and curriculum designed to serve LGBTQ youth. Divergent and convergent threads are discussed. Finally, the community based participatory research team has determined that the next step is to develop training materials regarding LGBTQ youth's mental health strengths and needs. Plans and initial progress in their development are discussed.