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Survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's experiences of mental health services in I reland
Author(s) -
McCann Edward,
Sharek Danika
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal of mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.911
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1447-0349
pISSN - 1445-8330
DOI - 10.1111/inm.12018
Subject(s) - mental health , transgender , lesbian , respondent , qualitative research , psychology , homosexuality , qualitative property , nursing , medicine , psychiatry , sociology , social science , political science , psychoanalysis , law , machine learning , computer science
Very little is known about the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT ) people in relation to mental health services. Therefore, the overall aim of the current research was to explore LGBT people's experiences of mental health service provision in I reland. The objectives were to identify barriers and opportunities, to highlight service gaps, and to identify good practice in addressing the mental health and well‐being of LGBT people. A mixed methods research design using quantitative and qualitative approaches was deployed. A multipronged sampling strategy was used and 125 respondents responded to the questionnaire. A subset of phase 1 ( n = 20) were interviewed in the qualitative phase. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically. The sample consisted of LGBT people ( n = 125) over 18 years of age living in I reland. Over three‐quarters (77%) had received a psychiatric diagnosis. Findings include that whilst 63% of respondents were able to be ‘out’ to practitioners, 64% felt that mental health professionals lacked knowledge about LGBT issues and 43% felt practitioners were unresponsive to their needs. Finally, respondent recommendations about how mental health services may be more responsive to LGBT people's needs are presented.