The Gillard Government has allocated $1.1 million to tackle high levels of poor mental health and suicide risk in our community.
The National LGBTI Health Alliance will carry out the two-year MindOUT mental health and suicide prevention project following the funding announcement by Mental Health Minister Mark Butler.
“The LGBTI community reports higher levels of depression, anxiety and other mental health problems with evidence suggesting they are 3.5 to 14 times more likely to attempt suicide than the general community,” Butler said.
“The MindOUT project will help address these needs by building the capacity of the LGBTI community members and mainstream health services to respond more effectively.”
Recent statistics paint a sobering picture of the state of mental health among LGBTI Australians. According to the Alliance, at least 36.2 percent of trans people and 24.4 percent of gay, lesbian and bisexual people experience major depressive episodes, compared with 6.8 percent of the general population.
Gay or bisexual Australians are twice as likely as heterosexuals to experience anxiety disorders and more than three times as likely to experience affective disorders.
About half of the country’s trans population have attempted suicide at least once.
National LGBTI Health Alliance chair Paul Martin said although the Alliance still remains without core funding, the grant represents the largest federal government investment in LGBTI mental health.
“The funding is a recognition by the Australian Government that LGBTI health concerns are an important part of a health system which respects diversity and social inclusion,” he said.
Alliance CEO Warren Talbot told the Star Observer the Alliance would focus on specialist training for existing LGBTI health organisations to improve their mental health and suicide prevention initiatives and help mainstream mental health services better deal with the needs of LGBTI people.
“It’s a massive exercise in training and education,” he said. “What we need is confidence that if someone goes to their local community health centre, if someone goes to their local GP, then an LGBTI person will be treated properly.”
Talbot said training mental health staff will be “front and centre” of the MindOUT program, which will employ two full-time staff.
“I don’t think we’ll fix it in two years, but I think we’ll make some very important steps forward,” Talbot said.
“[We] believe that proper attention to mental health and suicide prevention needs of LGBTI people should be a permanent part of our health care system, it’s not something we worry about once or twice, it should be a permanent and ongoing part of Australia’s ongoing system.”
