One in three black trans youth have tried to take their life in the last year, according to a new report by the Trevor Project. It also finds that black transgender and non-binary youth are twice as likely to attempt suicide in comparison to their cisgender black LGBQ peers.
The Trevor Project is a crisis intervention and suicide charity for LGBTQ young people under 25.Their new report “Black LGBTQ Youth Mental Health” examines the rates of depressed mood, likelihood of being suicidal, and mental health service use among Black LGBTQ youth.
It finds that despite having similar rates of mental health disparities, black LGBTQ youth are less likely to receive professional care. Black transgender and non-binary youth report double the rate of seriously considering (27% vs 59%) and attempting suicide (15% vs 32%) in the past 12 months compared to cisgender Black LGBQ youth. While nearly half (47%) of LGBTQ youth overall report getting professional mental health help in the past year, only 4 in ten (39%) of black LGBTQ youth reported having done so.
Myeshia Price-Feeney, PhD a Research Scientist for The Trevor Project finds the rates especially troubling:
“Black LGBTQ youth experience heightened rates of suicidality similar to all LGBTQ youth, but they are accessing professional care at lower rates. These troubling findings suggest that existing models of care have failed at providing black LGBTQ youth access to appropriate and acceptable mental health services. They underscore the need for culturally competent, community-derived suicide prevention programs. We must move past a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to better serve black LGBTQ youth.”
The report follows Trevor Project research that revealed three in 10 young trans people in America have tried to take their life in the last year.
Over 34,000 young LGBTQ people were surveyed for the largest survey of LGBTQ youth mental health ever done for the Trevor Project inaugural National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health this year.
Read more on Forbes.com.
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