Funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, in partnership with LGBTIQ+ Health Australia and the Australian Research Centre for Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS), this set of briefing papers is based on data from three major surveys of LGBTQA+ health and wellbeing – Private Lives 3, Writing Themselves In 4, and Pride and Pandemic.
The findings are presented in a clear, easy-to-use format and broken down on a state-by-state basis, making the information accessible and actionable.
These reports document the rates and associations of mental health and suicidality for LGBTQA+ community members at the State and Territory level in Australia. Across eight individual reports, analyses focus on State- and Territory-level rates of suicidality, mental ill-health, healthcare service access and modalities, risk factors such as discrimination and harassment experiences, and protective factors such as community- and school-based belonging. Each report also documents the association between these factors and levels of suicidality within each State and Territory in Australia.
To establish a broader context for these results, each report also provides comparative estimates between (a) the State or Territory results with general population estimates in Australia from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and (b) a comparison between States and Territories (broadly) from the available data. Lastly, these reports also provide an assessment of each State or Territories current policy and programming context (along with an assessment at the Primary Health Network level) to establish ways of furthering policy and health reform at the State and Territory level.
Understanding and interpreting these reports
Whilst these reports provide a comprehensive overview pertaining to rates of mental ill-health and suicidality among LGBTQA+ individuals across States and Territories in Australia, they were not intended to capture the full breadth of the lived experiences of LGBTQA+ adults and young people. For more information pertaining to other health statistics for LGBTQA+ community members, please see the following reports:
- The Rainbow Realities report
- The LGBTQA+ People with Disability report
- Private Lives 3
- Writing Themselves In 4
- Pride and Pandemic
- The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTQA+ People factsheets (upcoming)
Additionally, some State or Territory reports (e.g., Northern Territory) were only able to provide limited insights into the mental ill-health and suicidality rates for LGBTQA+ adults and young people due to the smaller sample sizes of participants. Where appropriate, analyses for these reports described their findings through a more descriptive and preliminary lens, as well as acknowledging the need for further data collection to obtain more robust insights.
You can access each briefing paper through the links below.
- Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Briefing Paper
- New South Wales (NSW) Briefing Paper
- Northern Territory (NT) Briefing Paper
- Queensland (QLD) Briefing Paper
- South Australia (SA) Briefing Paper
- Tasmania (TAS) Briefing Paper
- Victoria (VIC) Briefing Paper
- Western Australia (WA) Briefing Paper