Mental Health Care Lagging for LGBTQ Youth – By Steven Ross Johnson (US News) / June 5, 2023
The U.S. saw only a small gain over six years in the share of mental health facilities that both serve young people and offer LGBTQ-specific care, according to a new study.
Little progress has been made in recent years in expanding the share of facilities offering mental health treatment accessible to LGBTQ young people in the U.S., a new study indicates, even as they face a high risk of problems like depression and suicide.
In an analysis of more than 8,000 facilities in the U.S. that provided mental health services to youth in 2020 – most of which also provided services to adults – researchers found that 28%, or about 2,300, also offered services specifically designed for LGBTQ individuals. That marked a minimal increase from 25% of facilities offering LGBTQ-specific services in 2014, according to the study, which was published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.
Lead study author Kristen Choi, an assistant professor at the UCLA School of Nursing and an associate program director for the university’s National Clinician Scholars Program, says while there has been greater recognition by society of the existence of health disparities based on sexual and gender identity, the new findings show the nation’s mental health care system needs to be much more responsive to begin addressing those gaps.
