Ainsley Hawthorn, the project’s research manager, says some in the 2SLGBTQ+ avoid health services due to a lack of education among some health staff. (Submitted by Ainsley Hawthorn)
More than half of 2SLGBTQ+ and gender-diverse people in Newfoundland and Labrador say their mental health is poor or very poor and over 73 per cent say they needed mental health-care services but never got them.
That’s according to a research project by Quadrangle N.L., funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada.
The report considers all health-care services in Newfoundland and Labrador. The results are anything but optimistic.
“Even though we can see that there’s a need for therapy and mental health treatment, people aren’t easily able to get it,” Ainsley Hawthorn, the project’s research manager, told CBC News on Monday.
The survey had 272 respondents from people in all regions of the province. About half indicated they are gender-diverse, which is around 10 per cent of the gender diverse-population of the province, Hawthorn said.
Charlie Murphy, executive director of Quadrangle N.L., says the results of the survey indicate the need for more mental health services, across the province, free of charge, for the community.
The project also included interviews with health-care providers and health-care students.
Hawthorn said many indicated they haven’t had a solid education on serving the 2SLGBTQ+ community or the community’s particular needs.
Listen to the full interview with CBC Radio’s Newfoundland Morning:
“And generally speaking, the level of confidence was not that high among health-care providers that they could serve this community,” she said.
“We actually found that 43.8 per cent of [2SLGBTQ+] community members in the province had to educate a health-care provider on their needs in the past year. So that’s not even in their