Introduction
Mental health challenges among the LGBT community entails the wellbeing of the people from the LGBT community where they are faced with various challenges that affect the wellbeing of the person psychologically. The LGBT community experience victimization and discrimination from society, which affects their mental health. Mental health influences the productivity and normal life of the person either positively or negatively depending on the status of mental health. Mental health is a public health concern among the LGBT community; it affects the wellbeing of the person and can lead to mental disorders if not managed. Interventions need to be taken to help people from the LGBT community having mental health challenges.
Public Health Issue
The problem of mental health among the LGBT community is that it affects the health of the person by causing diseases like depression, anxiety disorder and Schizophrenia where the person normal life is affected (Henderson and Varney, 2017). Mental health challenges are common among the LGBT community in the United Kingdom because many people have not accepted the LGBT people as members of the larger society. The society discriminates the Lesbians, gays, bisexuals and Tran's individuals, causing distress among the people. The rights of the Lesbian, gay, bisexual and Tran's individuals need to be respected by all the people.
Data indicates that up to 3.6 million people in the UK belong to the LGBT community and majority of them live secretly to avoid being discriminated by the rest of the population (Henderson and Varney, 2017). The number of people identifying themselves as members of the LGBT community continues to rise as more people get the confidence to come out openly stating their sexual orientation. Globally the number of LGBT people is increasing, and communities around the world are accepting LGBT people as part of the society. They respect them regardless of their sexual orientation.
The origin of mental health challenges among the LGBT community is social isolation, stigma and discrimination from other members of the society. The culture of the people is not used to accepting people who are different in terms of their sexual orientation, making the people discriminate people who seem to be different (Henderson and Varney, 2017). Culture of the people is the biggest influencing factor that influence communities around the world to reject and discriminate LGBT people.
Health Promotion Resource
The social theory explains that social perceptions influence the behaviour of people. Social perceptions entail things that people are used to, and people believe that social structures are right, leaving no room for social change in society. People are used to relationships between people of different genders (Varney, 2019). Mental health challenges among the LGBT people in the United Kingdom is a major challenge because the majority of people believe that its unacceptable social behaviour in society. I have chosen mental health challenge among the LGBT to understand how the social norms and perceptions of the people influence their relationship with the LGBT community.
Younger people under the age of thirty-five years are the majority members of the LGBT and the most affected by mental health challenges because of the discrimination from their peers. The young people end up having mental health challenges because they spend most of their time in social places such as in school and recreational facilities (Varney, 2019). There is a need to address mental health challenges among the LGBT community to make them live their lives normally and prevent mental illness from happening among the people. LGBT people are living with mental health challenges without seeking support from professionals. The society also needs to recognize and respect other people rights and freedoms.
Aim and Objectives
The essay seeks to achieve various goals and objectives in relation to mental health among the LGBT community. The following are the goals and objectives:
- To identify how mental health challenges affects the LGBT people and in what ways are they affected?
- To identify the social challenges faced by people living with mental health challenges among LGBT people.
- To develop solutions to mental health challenges.
Theoretical Concepts and Frameworks
The paper uses behavioural change approach that is based on changing the behaviours and attitudes of the people to adopt different lifestyles and social relations towards the LGBT people. Among the causes of mental challenges is broken social relations where LGBT people are traumatized by society because of mental health challenges (Varney, 2019). The behavioural approach seeks to change the behaviour of the people and make them embrace and respect people with different sexual orientation once the behaviour of the people changes to goal of changing social challenges will be solved.
The cognitive theory explains human behaviour and why people behave and the factors that influence them to behave in a certain manner. The cognitive theory provides understanding and solutions that change the way people think, feel and behave (Varney, 2019). The theory can be applied in solving mental health challenges among the LGBT community. The theory can be used to change the way society thinks about LGBT people and in turn, reduce the stigmatization. The theory helps in achieving the goal of reducing the discrimination that happens in society to people perceived to be outcast. The theory is based on behavioural change.
The advantages of the cognitive theory are that the behaviours of discrimination are identified and rectified to make the people recognize that people are different and deserve respect (Varney, 2019). The behavioural approach of change shapes the attitudes and relations among the people that cause discrimination and eventually lead to mental health challenges among the affected people. The challenges likely to be faced is challenging the culture of the people since they are used to living in a certain way. The clear framework will help in confronting the challenges.
Health Promotion Message
The primary message delivered to the society, specifically young from the LGBT community living with mental health challenges is to seek medication attention and help to stop the mental health challenges from escalating. I would like them to know that society takes time to recognize and respect different norms that they are not used to; therefore, the discriminatory will slowly reduce and eventually stop. I would also like the society to recognize that people are different and that their discrimination of the LGBT people causes mental health challenges to the victims. Let society stop the stigmatization, and the LGBT community will have a healthy mental condition.
Different approaches can be used to deal with mental illness, and the approaches include educating the victims on the ways to deal with the cause of mental illness in our case being discrimination and stigmatization. The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people need to learn to live in an environment that is challenging and understand that there will always be haters. The victims need not to take negative criticism negatively and defend their rights. Understanding how to live with the challenges will help in stopping mental illness challenge among the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender in the United Kingdom.
Collaborative Team
Different stakeholders are involved in the development of strategies and measures to help promote health and reduce mental illness among LGBT people. The stakeholders include community health workers that interact with different people at a personal level in the communities (Meads, Carmona and Kelly, 2018). Other stakeholders involved include psychologists and clinicians that offer treatment to the patients. The stakeholders play different roles depending on their profession to help patients with mental illness recover.
There is still an opportunity for all the stakeholders to collaborate and work as a multi-agency will helping patients recover from mental illness. Working as a multi-agency will help the patients get all the health services in one place efficiently (Meads, Carmona and Kelly, 2018). All the stakeholders have a role to play in promoting mental health. Psychologists offer therapy to the patients while the clinicians offer medication to help the patient over challenges brought by mental illness. The challenges the stakeholders face working as multi-agency include lack of enough resources to fund their operations.
Evaluation
The measures taken will help in fulfilling the goals set, the goal of understanding the mental health illness challenges affecting LGBT his important by enabling the stakeholders come up with strategies of dealing with the problem (Meads, Carmona and Kelly, 2018). The professionals that deal with mental illness need background information to ensure that the cause of the mental illness is confronted and dealt with. The steps taken will help people living with mental illness to have a solution to their challenges.
It’s important for the public and other stakeholders to know mental health challenges faced by the LGBT people from the discrimination and torture that they get from the society (Meads, Carmona and Kelly, 2018). The effectiveness of mental health promotion will be measured by the outcome of whether the process helped people having mental health challenges. The SMART goals achievement need to be full field by ensuring that both the victims and the medical professionals play their role in fighting mental illness.
Conclusion
Mental health is a significant challenge affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people living in the United Kingdom. The LGBT community has higher chances of getting mental illness because of the victimization that they get from the society where they are viewed as an outcast. Various steps have been taken to help fight mental illness such as having community workers that create public awareness on the dangers of victimization to the LGBT community. Efforts taken are beginning to bear fruit with people reducing their discrimination against the LGBT people. The victims get help when in need of professionals.
