Description
The LGBTQ community experiences mental health challenges, such as anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders, at rates higher than heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. Given these disparities in mental health, it is crucial that the LGBTQ population has access to mental health services. However, LGBTQ individuals face barriers to accessing mental health care due to service affordability, availability, and/or lack of LGBT-inclusivity. A Place to Nourish your Health (APNH), formerly known as AIDS Project New Haven, has historically provided care to those in New Haven who live with HIV and AIDS. APNH is now seeking to re-define itself as an organization by expanding services to support those experiencing stigma related to gender identity, sexual orientation, addiction, and mental health. Thus, to aid APNH in their service expansion to stigmatized populations, we performed a qualitative community needs assessment in the greater New Haven area to inform where APNH’s priorities should lie in their expansion of services. Findings provided insight into the current mental health landscape of New Haven’s LGBTQ community and led to reccomendatios regarding APNH's expanion of behavoral health services.
Publication Date
Spring 2019
Keywords
Public health, behavioral health, sexual minority, gender minority, LGBTQ, A Place to Nourish Your Health, New Haven, Connecticut
Disciplines
Community Health and Preventive Medicine
Recommended Citation
Caba, Antonia; Chen, Joy; Chu, Casey; Grimaldi, Alexandra; Raynor, Abigail; Cole, Chris; and Pachankis, John, "Evaluating Behavioral Health Service Need for Sexual and Gender Minorities: A Community-Based Qualitative Study" (2019). Practice Based Community Health Research Reports. 24.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ysph_pbchrr/24