Mental Health Services for LGBT

According to aforementioned posts regarding LGBT risk to mental health, we could see that LGBT people are more likely to use mental health services and to have sought advice from their GP for emotional difficulties. From my knowledge, LGBT friendly mental health services or facilities is an unheard news across Singapore and Malaysia, so I couldn't really comment on the service standards and do much research for this region.  

So, how about the  service standards of mental health facilities for LGBT in Western countries? Will unequal treatment exist? Research suggests mixed experience of mental health services ranging from excellent to extremely poor, including unhelpful reactions from mental health professional. (Glasgow Anti-Stigma Partnership, 2009).

Another research done by Cathleen et al (2006) regarding the mental health care for sexual and gender Minority Groups in a Rural  U.S. State also report that majority of rural  providers claimed that there is no difference between working with LGBT clients and non-LGBT clients.  Furthermore, despite   providers' claims of acceptance, lack of education about LGBT mental health issues, and homophobia influenced services for rural LGBT people, many LGBT clients had been denied services, discouraged from broaching sexuality and gender issues by providers, and isolated within residential treatment settings.

The little knowledge and understanding of how needs for care and support may be different for LGBT people may hinder LGBT individuals to seek mental health services early.  Stonewall Cymru (2009) reported that half of the LGBT participants delay seeking mental health services due to the anticipation of negative responses and poor service. Moreover, because of the anticipation of negative responses, many LGBT people might be reluctant to declare their sexual-orientation and true sexual identity to avoid discrimination and poor service.

Thus, an environment that acknowledges and respects difference and which enables the person to live as they wish become crucial in the support of the health care needs of  LGBT people. I wish I could see the development of LGBT friendly mental health services in Asia in the near future. It will be great if I could join this development as well :)

LGBT Ageing and health care support

Other than the mental health service, another crucial issue that we have to be concern will be the ageing of LGBT people and their needs for health care services during their senior years.

In 2006, there were as many as 3 million LGB seniors aged 65 and older in the United States, and this number is expected to grow to 4 million by 2030 (deVries et al., 2006). And this increasing number of aging people will be a global phenomena as well.

Unfortunately, senior LGBT individuals also can't avoid to be the victim of sexual prejudice and discrimination. A study of LGB individuals over the age of sixty reported almost two-thirds (63%) of the participants were the victim of verbal abuse based on their sexual orientation and more than a quarter (29%) received threats of physical violence. 29% of the LGB participants reported being victimized by someone who threatened to disclose their sexual orientation to friends, family, and co-workers (Grossman, D'Augelli, & O'Connell, 2001).

As studies have found that nursing home staff often report intolerant or condemning attitudes towards homosexual and bisexual residents (Cahill et al., 2000; Gross, 2007), social services and health care providers should be more aware of this emerging issues and strike to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

Fortunately, there are several solutions are emerging in United States. The first LGB retirement community , the Palms of Manasota is located in Sarasota, Florida, and Rainbow vision in  SantaFe, New Mexico, opened in 2006 (deVries et al., 2006). Moreover, it is anticipated that LGB retirement housing options will increase dramatically in coming years. For example, L.G.B.T. Aging Projects are springing up in Boston, New York, Chicago, Atlanta and other urban centers to train long-term care providers. At the same time, there is a move to separate care of LGBT clients from non-LGBT clients to promote the comfort of the familiar. In the Boston suburbs, the Chelsea Jewish Nursing Home will includes a unit for the gay and lesbian elderly and Stonewall Communities has begun selling homes designed for older gay people with support services similar to assisted-living centers. There are also openly gay geriatric case managers who can guide clients to compassionate services. (Gross, 2007).

 I am not sure how long it will take for Asia country to have such services, but I will definitely be pleased to witness such LGBT friendly services be booming in Asia.

References

Cahill, S. South, K. & Spade, J. (2000). Outing age: Public policy issues affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender elders. Washington, DC: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Cathleen E. W., Melina Salvador M. & Miria (2006). Brief Reports: Unequal Treatment: Mental Health Care for Sexual and Gender Minority Groups in a Rural State. Psychiatric Services, 57, 6. Retrieved October 17, 2012, from http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=96789

deVries, B., Croghan, C., & Worman, T. (2006). Always independent, never alone: Serving the needs of gay and lesbian elders. Journal on Active Aging, 5, 44-47.

Glasgow Anti-Stigma Partnership (2009). There's more to me: A report on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People's Beliefs, Attitudes and Experiences in Mental Health. Glasgow: Scottish Association for Mental Health

Gross, J. (2007, October 9). Aging and gay, and facing prejudice in twilight, New York Times. Retrieved  October 17, 2012, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/us/09aged.html.

Grossman, A. H., D'Augelli, A. R. & O'Connell, T. S. (2001). Being lesbian, gay, bisexual, and over 60 or older in North America. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services 13, 4, 23-40.

Stonewall Cymru (2009). Double Stigma: The Needs and Experiences of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people with Mental Health issues Living in Wales. Cardiff: Author.

Ward, R., Rivers Ian & Sutherland. M. (Eds.) (2012). Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Ageing: Biographical approaches for inclusive care and support. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publisher.

 

LGBT and Employment

Do you know?

This is discrimination against both lesbian and heterosexual women, aren't' they? Don't you think that our labor market is too patriarchy oriented?

References

Elmslie, B., & Tebaldi, E. (2007). Sexual orientation and labor market discrimination. Journal of Labor Research, 28(3), 436-453.

Peplau., L. A., & Fingerhut, A. (2004). The paradox of the lesbian worker. Journal of Social Issues, 60(4), 719-736.

Risk to Hate Crime

Aggression and attacks on LGBT people happen all around the world. If you have some free time, take a look of this film named "Boys Don't Cry " that vividly illustrating Gender Identity Disorder (GID) and the hate crime against transsexualism. It was disturbing to me when I saw hate crime scene in the film.  LGBT people should enjoy the human rights and freedom as we have, and we should all work hand-in-hand against hate crime, and bringing those hate crime perpetrators to justice.

1) In the study of a community sample of 342 LGBT individuals, 57.7 % of the lesbians reported having been a victim of either child sexual abuse and or adult sexual assault. (Heidt, Marx, & Gold, 2005)

2) Berrill (1992) reports that thousands of episodes - including defamation, harassment, intimidation, vandalism, assault, murder and other abuse have been reported to police departments and to local and national organization (NGLTF Policy Institute, 1991), while countless more incidents have gone unreported. Statistics on incidence of anti-gay violence show them to be on the increase throughout the United States (NCAVP, 2005).

3) In 2001, 2475 Americans reported being victimized by antigay violence, up to 10% from 2249 in 1999. In 2004, According to FBI, 15% of hate crimes were committed against people because of their perceived nonheterosexual orientation. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program indicate that 15.7% of the single bias reported in 2004 were sexual orientation bias, of those 1197 bias crimes, 13.7% were specifically anti-lesbian (Mallon, 2008).

4) A study of 400 self-identified lesbians in San Francisco fund that 84% had experienced verbal harassment, 40% had been threatened with violence, 27% had had objects thrown at them, and 12% had been punched, kicked, hit, or beaten (Von Schulthess, 1992).  

5) Study of 2669 transgender people in Europe state that 79% of respondents reported some form of harassment in public places ranging from comments to physical or sexual abuse. (Turner et al., 2009).

6) Transgender people are twice as likely to have been victims of physical violence and three time as likely to experience harassment as LGB people. (Browne & Lim, 2008).

7) The Scottish Transgender alliances studied on transgender people's experience of domestic abuse suggested that high level of domestic abuse with 80% of survey respondents reporting emotional, physical or sexual abuse from a current or former partner based on a rejection of their trans identity. (Roche et at., 2010).

Be a voice for LGBT civil and human rights!

References

Berrill. K (1992). Anti-gay violence and victimization in the United States: An overview. In G. Herek & K. Berrill (Eds.). Hate Crimes. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Browne, K & Lim, J. (2008). Trans People: Additional Finding Report.Count me in Too: LGBT lives in Brighton and Hove. Brighton: Spectrum.

Heidt, J., Marx, B., & Gold, S. (2005). Sexual revictimatization among sexual minorities: A preliminary study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 18(5), 533-540.

Mallon Gerald P. (2008). Social Work Practise with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People (2nd ed). New York: Routledge.

National Coalition of Antiviolence Programs (NCAVP) (2005). National information from the 2004 report on anti-lesbian, gay and transgender & bisexual violence, victimization and defamation in 1991. Washington, DC: National Lesbian/Gay Task Force.

Roche, A., Morton, J. and Ritchie, G. (2010). Out of Sight, Out of Mind?. Edinburgh: Scottish Transgender Alliance. Retrieved October 16, 2012, from http://www.scottishtrans.org/Uploads/Resources/trans_domestic_abuse.pdf

Turner, l., Whittle, S. & Combs, R. (2009). Transphobic hate crime in the European Union. Retrieved October 16, 2012 from http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/r/6/transphobic_hate_crime_in_eu.pdf

Von Schulthess, B. (1992). Violence in the streets: Anti-lesbian assault and harassment in San Francisco. In G. M. Herek & K. T. Berrill (Eds). Hate crimes: Confronting violence against lesbian and gay men (pp. 133-152). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.