Professional expectations of provider LGBTQ competence: Where we are and where we need to go

Abstract

Introduction

Mental and behavioral health professional organizations use their governing documents to set expectations of provider competence in working with LGBTQ + clients.

Method

The codes of ethics and training program accreditation guidelines of nine mental and behavioral health disciplines (n = 16) were analyzed using template analysis.

Results

Coding resulted in five themes: mission and values, direct practice, clinician education, culturally competent professional development, and advocacy. Expectations for provider competency vary greatly across disciplines.

Conclusion

Having a mental and behavioral health workforce that is uniformly competent in meeting the unique needs of LGBTQ populations is key for supporting the mental and behavioral health of LGBTQ persons.

Keywords:

• LGBTQ
• cultural competency
• mental health services
• provider training
• mental health care policy

Ethics statement

The documents analyzed for this study were publicly available and did not constitute human subjects research. As such, this project was not subject to Institutional Review Board review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available. The full titles of each document analyzed are provided in a manuscript table.

Notes

1 LGTBQ is used throughout this article unless the literature being referenced uses different language (e.g., LGBT, sexual and gender minority) or is specific to a subgroup of the population (LGB-only studies).

2 Conversion therapy (referred to as sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts in more contemporary literature) is the harmful practice of attempting to change one’s sexual orientation to be heterosexual and/or one’s gender identity to be cisgender.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Maryland Prevention Research Center cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (grant U48DP006382). Natasha D. Williams also acknowledges support from the Southern Regional Education Board and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholars Program. J.N.F. also acknowledges support from the Maryland Population Research Center, by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant P2CHD041041). This work does not expressly represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.