Post by Ayla on Feb 4, 2016 9:13:12 GMT 8
Our mental health services are sick with widespread homophobia and transphobia
My time as a lesbian mental health nurse shows why we are failing LGBTIsMental health professional Taz Edwards-White works with LGBTIs.2 February 2016by Taz Edwards-White
I was doing a shift as a mental health nurse one night when a colleague actually dragged her chair out of the nursing station so she didn’t have to sit next to me.
It was if she was scared of ‘catching lesbian’ from me. Maybe she feared I would fancy her?
Working on the wards I experienced daily homophobia, with others telling me that I was sinning or going to hell, as well as heterosexist remarks, like being asked about my husband.
These attitudes didn’t come from the patients, but from my colleagues. If this is how mental health professionals were treating one another, then what impact were these attitudes having on the patients?
Stonewall, a UK LGBT charity, published their Unhealthy Attitudes report in 2015. It found a quarter of patient-facing staff have heard colleagues make negative remarks about lesbian, gay or bi people, and one in five have heard negative comments made about trans people in the last five years.
My own experience of this led me to find METRO, an equalities and diversity charity, where I started volunteering for a couple of hours a week just to be in a space where I didn’t need to self-monitor my language – a place where I could be myself.
Just a couple of weeks later I started working at METRO, running the mental health and wellbeing service. We provide a weekly social based peer supportive drop-in, and I created a crisis one-to-one support service and an advocacy service for those who identify as LGBTQ and who feel they are experiencing mental health issues.
Over a decade later and the service is busier than ever before.
I see anything from six crisis clients a week to six crisis clients a day. I would have thought 13 years on, with the positive changes in UK legislation, things would have improved.
But unfortunately when LGBTQ people access statutory mental health services, they fear and experience homophobic, biphobic, transphobic and heterosexist staff views.
That means a huge part of themselves isn’t discussed during assessment. Vital client needs can be missed and the treatment they get is far less effective as a result.
Feeling you have to conceal your sexuality or gender identity to receive treatment has a real impact on your mental wellbeing. This in itself can lead to depression and the constant stress can lead to thoughts of suicide.
The clients I see feel the very real impact of stigma. They are often distressed and vulnerable, usually left without any support as family and parents have disowned them because they don’t fit in with their expectations.
In one-to-one sessions we find coping strategies together, mechanisms to improve wellbeing and ways to survive.
I believe it is our society that is sick; there’s so much unnecessary hatred, often fuelled by mainstream media.
To reduce stigma, regardless of sexuality or gender identity we need to be able to discuss our mental health openly with more compassion. We need to start from a place of kindness and to all listen without labels.
This Saturday (6 February), the UK’s national Student Pride event will have mental health as its theme and I’m delighted to have been invited on the main panel.
I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to discuss a subject which doesn’t get anywhere near enough attention and hope the chance to speak about it will help students in the audience and show how we can deliver more change long-term.
www.gaystarnews.com/article/my-time-as-a-lesbian-mental-health-nurse-shows-why-we-are-failing-lgbtis/#gs.iZdjDX0
My time as a lesbian mental health nurse shows why we are failing LGBTIsMental health professional Taz Edwards-White works with LGBTIs.2 February 2016by Taz Edwards-White
I was doing a shift as a mental health nurse one night when a colleague actually dragged her chair out of the nursing station so she didn’t have to sit next to me.
It was if she was scared of ‘catching lesbian’ from me. Maybe she feared I would fancy her?
Working on the wards I experienced daily homophobia, with others telling me that I was sinning or going to hell, as well as heterosexist remarks, like being asked about my husband.
These attitudes didn’t come from the patients, but from my colleagues. If this is how mental health professionals were treating one another, then what impact were these attitudes having on the patients?
Stonewall, a UK LGBT charity, published their Unhealthy Attitudes report in 2015. It found a quarter of patient-facing staff have heard colleagues make negative remarks about lesbian, gay or bi people, and one in five have heard negative comments made about trans people in the last five years.
My own experience of this led me to find METRO, an equalities and diversity charity, where I started volunteering for a couple of hours a week just to be in a space where I didn’t need to self-monitor my language – a place where I could be myself.
Just a couple of weeks later I started working at METRO, running the mental health and wellbeing service. We provide a weekly social based peer supportive drop-in, and I created a crisis one-to-one support service and an advocacy service for those who identify as LGBTQ and who feel they are experiencing mental health issues.
Over a decade later and the service is busier than ever before.
I see anything from six crisis clients a week to six crisis clients a day. I would have thought 13 years on, with the positive changes in UK legislation, things would have improved.
But unfortunately when LGBTQ people access statutory mental health services, they fear and experience homophobic, biphobic, transphobic and heterosexist staff views.
That means a huge part of themselves isn’t discussed during assessment. Vital client needs can be missed and the treatment they get is far less effective as a result.
Feeling you have to conceal your sexuality or gender identity to receive treatment has a real impact on your mental wellbeing. This in itself can lead to depression and the constant stress can lead to thoughts of suicide.
The clients I see feel the very real impact of stigma. They are often distressed and vulnerable, usually left without any support as family and parents have disowned them because they don’t fit in with their expectations.
In one-to-one sessions we find coping strategies together, mechanisms to improve wellbeing and ways to survive.
I believe it is our society that is sick; there’s so much unnecessary hatred, often fuelled by mainstream media.
To reduce stigma, regardless of sexuality or gender identity we need to be able to discuss our mental health openly with more compassion. We need to start from a place of kindness and to all listen without labels.
This Saturday (6 February), the UK’s national Student Pride event will have mental health as its theme and I’m delighted to have been invited on the main panel.
I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to discuss a subject which doesn’t get anywhere near enough attention and hope the chance to speak about it will help students in the audience and show how we can deliver more change long-term.
www.gaystarnews.com/article/my-time-as-a-lesbian-mental-health-nurse-shows-why-we-are-failing-lgbtis/#gs.iZdjDX0