A safe place to start: An accessible introduction to mental health for LGBTQ+ young people

Over the last year the members of LGBT Youth Scotland’s Mental Health Youth Commission and myself as their Participation Officer, have worked together to co-produce a mental health resource. We had the aim of building confidence and knowledge among other LGBTQ+ young people to break down stigma around mental health and de-mystify accessing support. This felt so needed, as LGBTQ+ young people face higher rates of poor mental health and are more likely to experience mental health conditions, and accessing support can feel daunting for many young people. This is shown in our Life in Scotland Health Report, where many young people have had negative experiences accessing mental health support.

The young people discussed lots of issues that were important to them to include in a resource, these ranged from focusing on the intersection between disability, neurodivergence, LGBTQ+ identities and mental health, and a resource mapping out safe and inclusive services for LGBTQ+ young people. However, after further discussion and lots of different ideas, we ultimately felt that as an initial resource, the most important thing was for it not to be alienating, and to be accessible to someone who is completely new to the topic. The main hope was to create a resource that helped to reduce stigma, normalise mental health conditions, and make the topic of mental health approachable. This began to form the contents of the resource.

In the next paragraph you will hear from Mental Health Youth Commissioner, Hadrien, about how we worked together to create the resource and the things that were important to them.

As a team of young people, we made sure to get together as much as possible whilst creating this resource. This would often mean meetings online where we would bounce ideas back and forth and work on not only the idea of the resource but the creation of it in its core elements.

Having worked on the contents earlier and what we wanted the resource to include, we started to look at language. Utilising time together in person as a Commission (whilst also enjoying some very delicious pizza), we began to really dissect each section with a focus on the wording and vocabulary used when describing mental health. This was an incredibly important element of this resource and for many of the young people involved, this was a point of passion for them. The significance of using appropriate and up to date language to describe mental health conditions came out vibrantly in the lengthy discussions we had, making sure to perfect it down to the smallest details.

Whilst the visual design wasn’t entirely within our work, as young people we had the amazing opportunity to witness it come to life bit by bit and have been supported and invited to make comments along the way.

The young people discussed wanting to outline appropriate language and terminology, as often they come across stigmatising language being used by other young people unknowingly. They wanted the resource to introduce what mental health is in a basic and accessible way, as there’s so many misconceptions around it and it can feel really daunting sometimes. They also wanted the resource to discuss ways of coping and accessing support, as well as offering advice for supporting other people and putting boundaries in place. This was important to the youth commissioners because so often LGBTQ+ young people support their friends with poor mental health, perhaps due to family relationships not feeling safe to be out or mistrust in services.

We wanted the resource to convey young people’s rights so that other young people understand the standard of care they should expect. However, we also felt it was important to balance this by being realistic about the experiences children and young people so often have with mental health services, which are often under-resourced and lack LGBTQ+ specific knowledge.

Overall, the process of creating this resource has been such a positive experience for those involved. With the Mental Health Youth Commission relatively new, this process strengthened feedback loops between group members and gave us all confidence in what was possible.

Alyssa, one of the Mental Health Youth Commissioners, added:

Seeing the resource completed with the hard work we all put into it was very rewarding. Being a new commission and producing this resource as our first work does push us to keep thinking of new ideas ensuring all we do in the future reduces stigma around mental health and helps LGBTQ+ young people to feel included in the conversations.

We really hope the resource goes on to help other young people, their friends, families and allies to approach the topic of mental health and feel more able to access or signpost support when they need it.

Click here to download a digital version of The Mental Health Guide or, if you would like a physical copy posted to you, please email info@lgbtyouth.org.uk