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Rachel Cook
Gay and lesbian health advocates are outraged that GLBTI people have not been specifically included in a new Victorian Department of Human Services (DHS) consultation paper, ‘Because Mental Health Matters: A new focus for mental health and wellbeing in Victoria’.
Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria (GLHV) and the Victorian Ministerial Advisory Committee on GLBTI Health have called a consultation session on July 16 to gather community responses to the document.
The consultation is open to the public, and the DHS will be in attendance.
“I’ve already prepared a fairly substantial submission to the DHS, but we need to hear from people on the ground and what they think is important in regards to mental health for GLBTI people.” GLHV Director Anne Mitchell told MCV.
Her organization is “pretty annoyed that gay and lesbian mental health has been left off the agenda,” she said, noting that she wasn’t particularly surprised by the oversight, as questions about sexuality aren’t included in many health surveys.
“This is why we never get on the political agenda, and we need to in this area,” Mitchell explained. “There is plenty of evidence that gay and lesbian people have special needs. We see the same pattern over and over. We have higher rates for depression and suicide in our youth and it’s not cured by adulthood.
“We know that most mental problems in our community are caused by homophobia, and that is preventable. We need to have broader mental health services which look at providing education in schools to challenge homophobic behaviour.”
Mitchell also highlighted the fact that GLBTI people access health services later than heterosexual people, due to the uncertainty of what they can disclose and fear of encountering discriminatory treatment.
“There are a number of issues specific to GLBTI people,” she concluded.
Co-president of the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard, Brian Murray, said he supported the calls for consultation by GLHV and the Ministerial Advisory Committee “200 percent”.
“We have a high percentage of callers with mental illness. There’s lot of people who are isolated and depressed and maybe contemplating suicide. We try to get them the support they need in between visits to clinicians or institutions, but more services are needed,” Murray said.
A 2004 report, ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Hidden in the crowd: The Need for Documenting Links between Sexuality and Suicidal Behaviours Among Young People’, found that young same-sex attracted Australians may be up to six times more likely to attempt suicide than the population in general, with those in rural areas being particularly at risk.
In response to the lack of representation of gay and lesbian people in the original discussion paper, DHS spokesperson Graeme Walker explained that the discussion paper was aimed at a higher overview level, and didn’t necessarily talk about specific communities in terms of effects and impact of mental health.
“The DHS has spoken to the members of the Advisory Committee on GLBTI Health and that will develop further with the consultation. We are now liaising with specific groups such as farmers and those in rural communities too,” Walker said.
www.glhv.org.au
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