According to a recent survey, the proportion of mental health facilities in the US that provide care specifically for LGBTQ people as well as young people has increased very little over the past six years.
A new study finds that, despite the fact that LGBTQ youth in the US are at an increased risk of issues like depression and suicide, little progress has been achieved in recent years to increase the proportion of facilities delivering mental health treatment accessible to them.
Shortage of LGBTQ Mental Health Care for US Youth
Researchers discovered that 28%, or nearly 2,300, of the more than 8,000 facilities in the US that offered mental health services to kids in 2020—the majority of which also offered services to adults—also provided services, particularly for LGBTQ people.
The report, which was released on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, found that only 25% of facilities offered LGBTQ-specific treatments in 2014.
Although society has become more aware of the existence of health disparities based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the lead study author Kristen Choi, an assistant professor at the UCLA School of Nursing and the associate program director for the university’s National Clinician Scholars Program, says the new findings show the country’s mental health care system needs to be much more responsive to start filling those gaps.
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Insights from California and Facility Types
At 44%, California had a comparatively high proportion of youth-serving facilities that provided LGBTQ mental health care, although Choi points out that this does not necessarily imply greater access.
With only about 2.8 such institutions per 100,000 kids, the Golden State likewise had a comparatively low per capita rate.
According to other studies, LGBTQ youth exhibit high levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. They are also far more likely than their straight counterparts to have tried suicide. Also, transgender youth have a greater risk of suicide.
Researchers in the current study discovered that for-profit facilities were more likely than nonprofit or public facilities to provide LGBTQ-specific services, highlighting concerns about how cost can restrict access to mental health care for LGBTQ kids.
