Research indicates that youth who self- identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersexed (LGBTQI) have a higher prevalence of behavioral health disorders than their peers who have a match between the gender they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity, and often face even greater challenges to recovery. For many LGBTQI youth living with mental illness, addiction or co-occurring disorders, barriers to recovery are compounded by experiences of familial rejection, bullying, discrimination, and a lack of services that are inclusive and culturally appropriate.
In order to help this population of young people to achieve long-term recovery and transition to safe, healthy, and fulfilling adult lives, youth service providers, peers, clinicians, family members, advocates, educators, and administrators can begin to improve services and increase supports by developing their understanding of the complex challenges facing LGBTQI youth in recovery, as well as emerging efforts to address these challenges. It is important to know that there is not one single LGBTQI community but rather many overlapping communities with varying issues and wisdom to offer.
This webinar will present information about the experiences of youth, barriers to accessing existing youth-oriented recovery supports, promising approaches to LGBTQI-specific youth programming and best practices for engaging LGBTQI youth and fostering safe and inclusive environments.
Who should attend
State, territory, tribe, and county-level mental health and substance use disorders treatment/recovery systems administrators, consumers and people in recovery, behavioral health providers, peer providers, providers of other health and human services (primary health care, housing, employment), policymakers, and researchers.
All BRSS TACS webinars are recorded, closed captioned, and available for viewing at your convenience. Visit the BRSS TACS webinars page to access the archived webinars.