The speakers at the report launch, with authors Diana Rands and Anna Birkenhead at the front right. A report into mental health and addiction services for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Auckland has found training clinicians to simply ask about the gender and sexuality of their clients would be a great start in improving the quality of care. The research by Anna Birkenhead and Diana Rands, “Let’s talk about sex (sexuality and gender) was been developed through the collaboration of the Auckland District Health Board, OUTLine and Affinity Services, and is the result of extensive research over the past year. The majority of people using mental health or addiction services in Auckland who took part in the study said they had never been asked about their sexual orientation or gender identity. Many also felt their clinician was not skilled or experienced in working with glbt people. The three key things that mental health and addiction service users asked for were staff to be competent with rainbow issues, to be asked about their orientation and identity and allowed to talk about it, and access to services such as rainbow and peer support. Service providers were also canvassed in the study, and a number of gaps in providing effective services were identified. The main themes were lack of awareness of glbt issues and a lack of diversity training. The report has seven recommendations for forging ahead, including implementing best practice guidelines, sexual orientation and gender identity training for all staff and establishment of glbt specific resources. The full report will be available next week and will be linked to from GayNZ.com.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 10th February 2012 - 9:39am