Safety
Being LGBTQ+ means young people are at risk of discrimination. LGBTQ+ young people may feel fear about what will happen to them within mental health support services e.g. of being outed to parents/carers. To counter this, young people should be actively reassured about their rights to confidentiality and that they will be safe from LGBTQ+-phobia and harassment. It should be clear to young people that nothing will happen to them without their consent or awareness.
What’s the problem?
Jasmine* (staff member) said “they’re so scared that somebody will find out, and somebody will judge, and all that sort of thing. So when the young person comes to talk to us, we need to open up those layers that they find frightening.”