LGBTIQA+ Literacy and Responsiveness Education in a Clinical Mental Health Service

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To report on implementing a workforce education and development initiative to enhance LGBTIQA+ literacy and responsiveness.

Methods

An instrument of 7 questions was administered to staff who attended a 1-hour introductory training session on LGBTIQA+ literacy and responsiveness held across an Australian inner metropolitan clinical mental health service.

Results

In total, 113 questionnaires were received. Overall 68% of staff agreed, or strongly agreed that they had adequate knowledge and attitudes to meet the support needs of LGBTIQA+ people. There were 75% who felt confident working with LGBTIQA+ people. A strong 91% reported the training to be useful to their clinical practice. Overall, 45% neither agreed nor disagreed their service was set up clinically and culturally for LGBTIQA+ persons, with 18% disagreeing or strongly disagreeing.

Conclusions

Organizational commitment in the form of training and education supports staff to become equipped with knowledge and skills in providing inclusive and responsive practice to LGBTIQA+ people. Training and education are reported to contribute to service improvement and staff capacity to better respond to community needs.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health
• LGBTIQ
• service delivery
• staff training
• workforce

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the work and support of those involved in this project; Emma Bohmer, Marnie Bell, Catherine Harrison, Bronwyn Morrison, Michelle Bullivant, Dr Sarah Berriman, Giz Rowlands, Jayne Lewis, Dr Vivien Yeo, John McLaren, Bridget Organ, Victorian Transcultural Mental Health, and all staff who attended training and responded to the survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.