News

National mainstream mental health service providers have a particular responsibility to develop strategies, projects and policies that move beyond ’treating everyone the same’, to consider the unique circumstances of oppression, marginalisation and discrimination that can impact the access of marginalised people and communities to services.

LGBTI people are most likely to realise and explore their identities and experiences during their childhood and adolescence.  Along with increasing social acceptance of LGBTI people, LGBTI young people are choosing to be visible at a younger ages than previously possible. 

LGBTI families, like all families, come in many different forms, and as with any family, the membership and structure of LGBTI families can change over time. 

While we know that intimate partner and family violence are risk in any relationship, for LGBTI people it may be more invisible because of the compounding impact of LGBTI relationships being less recognisable to service providers and the lack of inclusion of LGBTI relationships in relevant research. 

LGBTI people have disproportionately high levels of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Ruth will describe some of these issues, and differences for different sub-groups including for example, gender diverse, and bisexual people.

There has been increasing recognition of LGBTI populations within mental health and suicide prevention, and work has begun to ensure that programs and services are inclusive of and accessible to LGBTI people.

Why do people self-injure? The urge to cut, scratch, rub, tear and burn our skin seems in direct contrast to our innate instincts of self-preservation and survival.

LGBTI people and communities have been slowly gaining increased recognition of their mental health and suicide outcomes, however, LGBTI populations are still relatively invisible in mental health and suicide prevention strategies, policies and frameworks, and thus excluded from project and programmes responses.

This webinar describes, explores and discusses the details of the content of the 2016 National LGBTI Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Strategy that was developed for an Australian context to systematically address the dramatic over-representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex people in measures of suicidality and mental ill-health.

This webinar will discuss results of a research project that investigated factors related to suicide death in LGBT populations in Australia.

Way Ahead Mental Health Association of NSW facilitates Anxiety Disorders Support Group that comprise of a small number of people who come together to share personal experiences and information in a safe, friendly and supportive environment, led by a trained volunteer group facilitator.