Symposia
LGBQT+
Jenny Shen, M.A.
Graduate Student
Stony Brook University
Rego Park, New York
Sara Medina-Devilliers, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Boston Children’s Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
Ellora Vilkin, M.A.
Doctoral Student
Stony Brook University
New York, New York
Howard Huang, M.A.
PhD Student
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY
Mallory Dobias, M.A.
PhD Student
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York
Sakura Ito, BS
Master's Student
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York
Laura Jans, Undergraduate Student
Undergraduate Student
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY
Eve Rosenfeld, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist (Fellow)
VA Palo Alto Health Care System/Stanford
Menlo Park, California
Dina Vivian, PhD
Clinical Professor, Director of the KPC, Training Director of the Stony Brook University Consortium Programs
Stony Brook University, L. Krasner Psychological Center
Stony Brook, New York
Adam Gonzalez, PhD
Director of Behavioral Health, Founding Director of the Mind-Body Clinical Research Center, Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Health
Stony Brook University, Mind-Body Clinical Research Center
Stony Brook, New York
Background. LGBTQ+ individuals who are also people of color (i.e. LGBTQ-POC) face minority stress related to racism, heterosexism and/or transphobia. Such multiple minority stressors correspond with higher risk for emotion regulation difficulties, depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Historically, clinical psychology has marginalized, pathologized, and excluded both POC and LGBTQ+ individuals. LGBTQ-POC continue to experience discrimination in healthcare, leading to decreased access to care, poor quality of care received, and poor health outcomes. Little is known about how to increase access to effective, affirmative mental healthcare to better meet the mental health needs of LGBTQ-POC.
Method. We conducted four 60-minute focus groups with LGBTQ-POC (N = 19; M age 26.5, 35.6% transgender or gender diverse; 50% gay/lesbian, 25.7% bisexual/pansexual; 50% Asian/Pacific Islander, 21.4% multiracial, 21.4% Black; 21.4% Latina/o/x). Healthcare experiences, service utilization, barriers to treatment access, desired mental health services, and essential components of affirmative care were assessed. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis in NVivo.
Results. Participants reported on key minority stressors related to mental health (e.g., cultural stigma on coming out, intragroup stigma, institutional and societal discrimination and microaggressions), barriers to effective mental health treatment (e.g., lack of accessibility or general availability of therapists who share clients’ identities, discrimination from or a lack of identity-related knowledge among clinicians), coping strategies (e.g., seeking specific communities with other LGBTQ-POC), and importance of therapist characteristics (e.g., needing a greater representation of LGBTQ+ therapists of color).
Conclusions. Results highlight potential means of improving mental healthcare and addressing health disparities experienced by LGBTQ-POC. Specifically, it is critical to increase mental health service accessibility, education for clinicians around cultural humility and advocacy-based orientations in therapy, as well as representation of LGBTQ+ therapists of color. Applications of these data to create training resources for clinicians to provide affirming care for LGBTQ-POC will be discussed.