As part of our Come Out for Mental Health campaign, we spoke to our friends at Mental Health Europe about some of the challenges that LGBTI people face and how that can affect their mental health. 

Thank you to TENI (Ireland) for sharing your good practices with us as part of the Come Out for Mental Health campaign!

“Our work on mental health has lots of different elements. When I think about TENI’s work with policymakers, it reminds me of the scaffolding you see when a house is being built. It’s not the finished product, but it is work that will provide a structure for future activities, work that is designed to have long-lasting positive effects.

All the ongoing training and conversations happening between TENI and policymakers, healthcare professionals or teachers might not be the most visible element of our work – but it does result in guidelines and increased understanding. It is positive that TENI have a good working relationship with the Health Service Executive (HSE – Ireland’s health service), School Managerial Boards, researchers and other key people and organisations that can facilitate the needs of the trans community. Tools like guidelines for general practitioners (GP’s) are what will make a huge difference to trans people, considering that trans people often experience anxiety when presenting at these services.

TENI are also very excited to be partnering with HSE to deliver Gender Identity Skills Training (GIST) which is due to begin soon. GIST will be evaluated, with the aim of offering this training to all healthcare providers in all regions of the Republic of Ireland.

TENI also provided training for staff in 47 post-primary schools and 17 primary schools in the the Republic of Ireland in 2016/2017 school year. In many ways, we are living in a different Ireland now… and that can only be a good thing for the mental health of trans people.”

– Vanessa Lacey, TENI Health & Education Manager, in conversation with Come Out for Mental Health

Thank you to Gayten-LGBT (Serbia) for sharing your good practices with us as part of the Come Out for Mental Health campaign!

Thank you to Seta (Finland) for sharing your good practices with us as part of the Come Out for Mental Health campaign!

Eveliina, a Finnish cross-dressing senior, found support and meaningful volunteer work as a spokesperson for Seta’s senior services.

She emphasises how important it is for mental health to be able to express one’s gender as they like in this lovely video from Seta:

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Seta on inclusion, diversity and the mental health of LGBTIQ young people:

“The rainbow represents an open space for a variety of gender identities and sexual orientations but do we really embrace diversity? Young LGBTIQ people are exposed to rainbow normativity. If a young person can´t relate to certain one-sided norms (for example how LGBTIQ people should look) it may hinder or slow down the development of their identity.

We need to raise awareness about the diversity we have in our community. Peer support groups for LGBTIQ youth should establish common rules for respecting diversity. Let’s support all the shades between the colours in our rainbow!” 

ILGA-Europe want to come out for mental health.

#ComeOut4MentalHealth

There are a lot of reports, statistics and analysis out there on the mental health of LGBTI people… but talking about it still seems like a taboo subject.

ILGA-Europe want to remind our activists that there is so much love and potential support within the LGBTI communities. We can rely on each other when we experience mental health problems, but talking is the major first step.

Join our conversation as ILGA-Europe come out for mental health!

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Blog post from Evelyne Paradis: 

“Talking About LGBTI Mental Health – It Starts Now” – HuffPost UK, 10 October 2017

Position on the right to the highest attainable standard of health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people

ILGA-Europe advocates for policies and laws that fully respect, protect and fulfill the right to health of LGBTI people. This implies not only negative obligations (prohibiting policies that violate the physical integrity of LGBTI people) but also positive measures (facilitating access to services, promoting healthy behaviours, etc.).

Therefore, ILGA-Europe calls for the removal of all discriminatory legislation, policies and practices in the area of health. LGBTI people must have access to appropriate and patient-centered healthcare systems that fully meet their health needs.

The identities of LGBTI people should not be pathologised or their bodies medicalised. Individuals who need or wish specific treatments should be informed about their long-term consequences, and those treatments should then be made accessible and affordable.

ILGA-Europe and Transgender Europe jointly submitted input for a public consultation on measures for improving the recognition of prescriptions issued in another European Union Member State.

Key concerns highlighted in our submission:

• We are worried by the fact that in some cases, trans persons were denied products on the basis that dispensers disapprove of their gender reassignment.
• It seems that some medicines, on which trans persons very much depend, are available only in some member states and not in other.
• We consider that the identification of the patient based solely on the first name or on the gender can be problematic in the case of patients whose appearance does not match the first name and the gender mentioned on the prescription.
• It seems that there is an extensive lack of knowledge within the trans community about the possibility of getting medicines prescribed in another member state.

The work undertaken is certainly the largest and most comprehensive data collection on trans people’s lived experience to date. One can never claim that research data is entirely representative of a community; even less so when the community being studied consists of many small sub-communities, as is the case with trans people. However, as is detailed in the data analysis section of this report, the statistics we have on the profile of respondents do generally match data of the population of Europe (e.g. the percentage of those with a disability).

International Human Rights References to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (regarding LGBT populations and HIV/AIDS and STIs)

ILGA-Europe has commissioned the production of this reference guide within a joint project “Prevention and Empowerment in the Commonwealth of Independent States (PRECIS)”, coordinated by COC Netherlands and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

The project aims at improving the sexual and reproductive health and enhancing the human rights of LGBT people in seven countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Ukraine. Thus the primary target audiences of the guide are LGBT advocates in the countries belonging to the PRECIS partnership. 

However, the guide is applicable to, and can be used by, a wide international readership. The production of the reference guide has also been supported by Sigrid Rausing Trust.

Report by ILGA-Europe to the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

This research project is the first of its size and scope has to be carried out among LGBT communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova and Romania. As such, the initiative is of groundbreaking importance and the data collected will serve to inform ongoing advocacy and policy work.

The report presents the findings on health and access to the health care system by the LGBT communities in five Central and Eastern European countries, as well as draws conclusions and makes recommendations to the relevant stakeholders, including international organisations. It also introduces a methodology and lessons learnt, which could be used for further research.

ILGA-Europe used the results of the research to lobby the EU Commission for the repeal of all laws discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation as a condition of accession to the Union. As of August 2005, only one out of the 13 newly acceded countries – Bulgaria – continues to have such laws.