June is LGBT+ Pride Month. Societal stigma, rejection, discrimination, denial of civil and human rights, harassment, violence, and health disparities are just some of the issues that individuals within the LGBT+ community face, which can increase their risk for developing mental health concerns. At Highland Hospital Behavioral Health, in Charleston, West Virginia, we offer compassionate, trauma-informed, evidence-based treatment to all of our clients.
Statistics About the LGBT+ Community
People within the LGBT+ Community often experience the same challenges as people who are cisgender and heterosexual, but they also experience additional stressors that are less common to people outside their community:
- Most LGBT+ people indicate they or someone else they know who is LGBT+ have been harassed or assaulted for because they are LGBT+
- Most LGBT+ people feel that they have fewer job opportunities and are paid less because they are not straight and cisgender.
- More than a third of LGBT+ people say they have been called slurs, while 28 percent say they have experienced insensitive or offensive remarks as a result of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
- Many LGBT+ people are rejected by friends, family members, and society in general when they are honest about their sexual orientation and gender identity.
- 10 percent of LGBT+ youth have been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property.
- 34 percent of LGBT+ youth have been bullied at school, and 28 percent have been bullied electronically.
- 4 times as many LGBT+ people are raped, compared to their heterosexual, cisgender counterparts.
It is important to understand that LGBT+ people are generally resilient people and that their sexual orientation and gender identity are not mental illnesses. The difficult experiences they face have devastating outcomes for the mental health of people who are LGBT+, as they would for anyone:
- Teens who are LGBT+ are six times more likely to experience depression than heterosexual, cisgender teens.
- LGBT+ youth are twice as likely to consider suicide and four times as likely to attempt suicide when compared to non-LGBT+ teens.
- Nearly half of transgender adults report having considered suicide in the past year, compared to 4 percent of the entire adult population in the U.S., and nearly 40 percent of trans adults have attempted suicide at some point, compared to less than 5 percent of the non-trans population.
Barriers to Getting Help
Not only do LGBT+ people have additional difficulties that can make their lives harder, but they also experience challenges when they try to get health care, sometimes even including mental health services:
- Providers refusing to care for them
- Stigma
- Unkind or ignorant language
- Blaming their gender identity or sexual orientation for the problem
LGBT+ Specific Resources
Because of the unique challenges they face and the struggles they have encountered with getting the help they need, LGBT+ people have developed resources to help one another and have had to become aware of which resources support people like themselves. Some of these include:
- The Trevor Project
- The National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network
- Mental Health Fund for Queer and Trans People of Color
- Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network
- Mental Health America LGBTQ+ Mental Health Resource Center
- The Trans Lifeline
- Human Rights Campaign
What Allies Can Do to Help
If you want to show support for LGBT+ people, you can:
- Be kind to people who come out to you and continue to treat them with the same love and compassion as you did before they came out
- Join pro-LGBT+ groups on social media
- Encourage your faith community to welcome LGBT+ people
- Provide visual cues that you are an ally, such as a bumper sticker on your car, a rainbow sticker on your name tag, and your pronouns in your email signature
- Educate yourself about the LGBT+ community’s history and terminology
- Call out homophobia and transphobia whenever you see it
- Donate to causes that support LGBT+ people
- Model support for LGBT+ people for your children
- Participate in local pride events in your community
- Contact your elected officials to ask them to promote legislation that protects the rights of LGBT+ people and vote against policies that could harm them
Highland Hospital Behavioral Health is a leading provider of behavioral health services in the Charleston, West Virginia, region. We have been providing quality mental health care in the area for over 60 years. Our team provides psychiatric and addiction treatment services that are tailored to meet the needs of each patient.
