Young people who are a part of the LGBTQ+ tend to have higher risks of suicide.
46% of kids that are between the ages of 13 and 17 (Support homepage, 2024) have considered suicide in the past year, while 33% of people are between the ages of 18 and 24 (p.1). It's not just based on sexual orientation or gender identity. People are also affected differently based on their race/ethnicity, along with what they identify as: Educate people about the lgbtq+ and let others know that they are not alone and that they can reach out for help (p.2). Let's figure out the solutions on how to help others in the LGBTQ+ community.
One way to help is to let the people in the LGBTQ+ community know that they are not alone. That they can reach out for help. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to seek out help nor do they want help. A lot of people also have trouble getting the help they need. Not everyone has access to mental health care:
“84% has a desire for mental health care
16% has no desire for mental health care
50% wanted but did not receive care
50% wanted and received care” (Support homepage, 2024).
The majority of the United States (US) LGBTQ+ population has a desire to seek mental health care. Unfortunately, it's a 50/50 chance of receiving the actual care. Now, the rest of the population has no desire to seek help whether it's financial wise or fear holding them back.
This solution has some problems because there are a lot of reasons for someone to be afraid of receiving mental health care whether it's political based, lack of money, or the fear of being outed by asking your parents' permission. These are the statistics of each reasoning of not being able to seek out mental health care:
“42% were afraid to talk about their mental health concerns with someone else, they were afraid that they wouldn't be taken seriously, they were afraid it wouldn't work.
31% they didn't want to get their parent’s/caregiver’s permission,they were not yet out about their LGBTQ+ identity and were afraid of being outed, they did not feel they would understand their sexual orientation or gender identity.
28% were scared that someone would call the police or involuntarily hospitalize them, did not want people to think something was wrong with them, had a previous negative experience and did not want to have another one, they could not afford it” (Support homepage, 2024).
They have their own reasons depending on whether or not they are able to seek help. The majority of the LGBTQ+ community is afraid that they wouldn't be taken seriously, that they would be disregarded. The rest of the population is afraid of people's reaction and being outed. The last bit of the LGBTQ+ community is afraid of not being able to financially support the costs or being immediately shipped off to inpatient care, which isn't helping the solution.
The second and final solution is to educate people on the LGBTQ+ community. Unfortunately, this solution seems the hardest to accomplish. There's a lot of things that affect the LGBTQ+ community’s mental health. Not a lot of people are even able to get gender affirming care, whether it's caused by politics or religion or both. No one in the community ever truly feels safe in the United States:
“90% of LGBTQ+ young people said that well being was negatively impacted due to recent politics.
45% of the transgender and nonbinary youth said that they or their family considered moving to a different state due to the politics and laws” (Support homepage, 2024).
In this solution, when faced with the question “How often has recent politics negatively impacted your well-being?” the majority of the LGBTQ+ community has agreed that politics is hurting them:
“10% said never
37% said sometimes
53% said a lot” (Support homepage, 2024)
Not every state has anti-LGBTQ+ laws, but it is getting detrimental to their mental health. Many people aren't able to get gender affirming care because of certain laws, which feeds into their mental health and makes that worse, evidently causing them to turn to suicide. The solution is to get rid of the anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
Addressing harassment in public schools is one of the solutions, while suicide rates is high within the community, the majority of them are kids; children between the ages of 13 and 17 years old (Support homepage, 2024). There have been those who reported being physically threatened or harmed, discriminated against, subjected to conversion therapy, or bullied because of their sexual orientation or gender identity had more than twice the rate of attempting suicide in the past year, compared to LGBTQ+ young people who did not report any of these anti-LGBTQ+ experiences:
“32% was verbally harassed because people thought they were LGBTQ+
21% wasn't allowed to dress in the way that fit their gender identity of expression
24% were physically attacked because people thought they were LGBTQ+,were disciplined for fighting back against bullies, belive they were disciplined more harshly because teachers/staff thought they were LGBTQ+,
9% experienced unwanted sexual contact because people thought they were LGBTQ+
7% left school because they were mistreated so bad” (Support homepage, 2024)
There are different ways to give support to those who need it, passively and actively. If you're an older LGBTQ+ person or an ally, you can go through training to learn how to better support others. There's Ally training; “This training program provides a basic framework for understanding LGBTQ+ identities and the unique challenges young people often face” (Public education). Then there's Care training; Its “an interactive training program for youth-serving adults that focuses on suicide prevention and mental health for LGBTQ+ youth” (p.1). There's also an LGBTQ+ athletes training; “This training is an interactive training program for an administrator, a coach, a parent, or a student. This training will teach you how to support LGBTQ+ young people and help drive positive sports environments for all” (p.2).
For people who are needing the support of these services, there are ways to get help. There are fast and easy ways to reach out for a counselor. It doesn't have to be face to face either. You can call or text, and it's also 24/7 all year round and it's free (Trevorspace (support)). If you are questioning and scared, or you are an ally trying to find information to help, you can get answers. There are solutions to fix the problems in the LGBTQ+ community.
References
Support homepage. The Trevor Project. (2024c, August 15).
Public education. The Trevor Project. (2024a, September 27).
Trevorspace (support). The Trevor Project. (2024d, August 15).
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