Within mental health services, there is a lot of emphasis put on the religion, faith, ethnicity and family background of LGBT service users.

This is, of course, both correct and appropriate but within services there is little knowledge or awareness of the everyday issues that also affects the mental health and wellbeing of LGBT people.

The LGBT Mental Health Project created a presentation that looks at these everyday issues which included, home, shopping, entertainment, work, travel and accessing health services.

Fear, whether real or perceived, was a big contributing factor in all these situations.

This was presented at an event to 25 staff at South West London & St. George’s Mental Health Trust which was very well received. Staff said they really benefited on this increased knowledge and awareness. They also said they felt more able to support LGBT service users in their quest for improved mental health and wellbeing.

Since giving the first presentation, the Project has been asked to give further presentations to a wide range of services within the Mental Health Trust. There has also been interest from organisations outside of the Mental Health Trust that can see the benefits of this approach.

Would your organisation benefit from this presentation or something similar?  Get in touch to find out more.