Mental Health and Addiction Services Exclusive to LGBTQ2S+ during COVID-19: An Environmental Scan

Abstract

Background: Youth who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, 2-spirit, and of other identities (LGBTQ2S+) experience mental health disparities and higher rates of substance use when compared to their cisgender and heterosexual peers and yet also experience more barriers to access to services. The purpose of this paper is to determine the types of mental health and substance use programs and services exclusive to LGBTQ2S+ youth in Ontario during the pandemic. Methods: An environmental scan was conducted to identify existing programs and services in Ontario, Canada that offered exclusive mental health and addiction services to LGBTQ2S+ individuals aged 16–29, either by offering services to all or subgroups within the population. Organizations, services and programs were classified by the geographical distribution of services, populations served, types of programming or services, methods of service delivery, and program criteria. Results: In total, 113 organizations and 240 programs and services were identified as providing mental health and substance use services exclusively to LGBTQ2S+ youth. Identified adaptations for the COVID-19 pandemic included cancelling in-person services, increasing online and telephone services, and expansion to province wide from local availability. Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of offering services that provide culturally inclusive care for LGBTQ2S+ youth, and these results can also be used by policy makers to inform policies. In particular, there was a lack of culturally relevant clinical services for youth requiring a greater intensity of treatment.

Disparities in the unmet mental health needs between LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ populations during COVID-19 in the United States from 21 July 2021 to 9 May 2022

“…Third, our data are lack of clinical confirmation as data were drawn from a large-scale population survey using self-administered instruments. The existence of self-assessed-as-unnecessary will lead to some participants being grouped into no UMHN and then an inaccurate estimation of the gap in UMHN ( 41 ). In addition, lack of clinical confirmation also disabled us from distinguishing the types of needed professional mental health services (like professional mental health services from GP or specialists).…”

‘Snapshot in time’: a cross-sectional study exploring stakeholder experiences with environmental scans in health services delivery research

“… 1 5–7 The evidence generated is used to help inform responses to existing and emerging issues and opportunities, inform quality improvement and support system transformation. 1 8 9 For example, ESs have: (a) described provincial and territorial planning for COVID-19 programmes in Canada 10 ; (b) identified mental health and addiction services for LGBTQ2S+ during COVID-19 11 ; and (c) examined infection control practices in nursing homes during COVID-19. 12 ESs have also informed high priority or routine care and service delivery and were implemented to: (a) identify the availability, services and scope of virtual walk-in clinics in Canada 13 ; (b) examine patient navigation programmes in Alberta, Canada 2 ; (c) describe the availability and readability of patient education materials for deprescribing 14 ; (d) identify existing frameworks, guidelines, and tools for designing, developing, implementing and evaluating a learning health system for Indigenous health 15 ; and (e) identify sexual health services for cancer survivors.…”