The CEO of Envision:You, which focuses on the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people, talks about rebuilding after the deadly shooting.

Watch the full video on 9News' website here:

To read the full statement, download the file at the bottom of this post.

Envision:You CEO Steven Haden (he/him) had this to say: "I am appalled by the Supreme Court's decision to grant a Christian web designer the right to discriminate against same-sex weddings. This ruling is a disgraceful endorsement of bigotry and a direct attack on freedom of expression and commerce. Moreover, this undermines a sense of belonging and safety in our country. Envision:You vehemently condemns this decision, as it perpetuates harmful discrimination and sends a chilling message that some individuals are deemed unworthy of equal treatment. We will not stand idly by while the rights and dignity of the LGBTQ+ community are trampled upon. It is a shameful day for justice and equality. We will continue to advocate for a society where discrimination is not tolerated, and where the rights of all individuals are prioritized and supported."

CBS news anchor Mekialaya White talks with CEO Steven Haden about LGBTQ+ mental health disparities and his personal journey of mental health and addicition.

Originally reported at: https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/envisionyou-ceo-mental-health-awareness-month-lgbtq-community/

Steven Haden, CEO and co-founder of Envision: You discusses what his organization is doing to improve access to mental health resources within the LGBTQ+ community.

Originally reported at: https://www.9news.com/video/news/local/lgbtq/improving-lgbtq-mental-health-access-in-colorado/73-b489804a-f642-4492-b57c-da45f50c012f

Originally Reported https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-parental-support-affects-mental-health-of-lgbtq-youth

Mixetto/Getty Images

For many LGBTQ people, support and affirmation in an environment where they feel safe and seen can make all the difference when it comes to mental health outcomes.

Now, new research out of The University of Texas at Austin, shed some more light on the role both positive and negative support from parents and guardians can play on the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ youth.

Specifically, it shows that those who had the most support experienced fewer depressive symptoms, while those who had higher levels of depressive symptoms were the recipients of more negative, “psychological control” from their parents.

What this research does is provide more context to a growing understanding of the overall mental health of American LGBTQ children and adolescents at a volatile time when issues around their identities — and acceptance of their identities — make frequent headlines.

This study complements past research that indicates the benefits a queer young person can experience if they feel supported by their parents — as well as the pitfalls they may face if they feel judged, stigmatized, or mistreated by their guardians and the adult figures in their lives.

How the study was conducted

This new study was recently publishedTrusted Source in the journal Child Development. The researchers surveyed 536 LGBTQ youth by way of data “from the first two waves of a longitudinal study of sexual and gender minority youth, which was designed to investigate risk factors for suicide,” according to a press release.

The data came from four consecutive collection periods starting in November 2011, with each period taking place 9 months after the preceding data collection time frame. The participants ranged in age from 15 to 21 years old and were recruited through college and community organizations in the northeast, the west coast, and the southwest.

The main goal of this research was to look at the role parental support, or their efforts to “intrude into the psychological and emotional development” of the young person, had on the presence of depressive symptoms.

For the survey, the young participants responded to questions on a range of topics that included:

• parental social support

• parental psychological control

• parents’ knowledge of the young person’s LGBTQ identity

• rating their depressive symptoms

• reporting on their sexual, gender, race, and ethnic identities,

• whether they received free or reduced-price lunch at school

When assessing the responses, lead author Amy McCurdy, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at The University of Texas at Austin, said she was struck by two things: the fact that “parent support and parent control were both influential in predicting youth depressive symptoms” and the fact that the influences of parental support or control “mattered most for LGBTQ youth who were not currently out to their parents.”

“The first finding is surprising in that it differs from the results of a previous study, which found that parent control supersedes the importance of parent support – our study shows that both are influential at the same time,” McCurdy told Healthline.

“The second finding is new. Given that there is not much research out there about LGBTQ youth who are not out to their parent, or parents — because parents have to consent for youth to participate in research — this finding indicates the crucial importance of parenting for these youth,” McCurdy added.

McCurdy further explained her new research “bridges the gap” between research on LGBTQ youth populations in general and research specifically on parenting itself.

When it comes to parenting research, she said most of it “does not explicitly consider youth sexual identity.”

By linking the two, this new work paints a broader picture of exactly how interactions with the adults who have, in many ways, the most directly impactful effect on molding these young people’s lives, affect their mental health.

“However, obviously general parenting practices matter for LGBTQ youth, too,” she added. “This new research demonstrates the importance of general social support and control for LGBTQ youth in particular, and suggests that the meaning of parenting may change based on whether youth are out to their parent — or parents — or not.”

In the study, McCurdy and her co-author acknowledge some limitations of this work. It relies on self-reported data, “generalizability of the sampling frame,” and “timeframe differences in key study measures.” The authors state that a “deeper understanding of parenting practices” is needed in future research.

Kyle T. Ganson, PhD, MSW, an assistant professor who is part of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto, said that this research gives more context to the quality of the relationships between parents and the youth in their lives.

“This is of course important because it can help provide intervention points to support the mental health and LGBTQ+ young people,” Ganson, who is unaffiliated with this research, told Healthline. “For example, mental health professionals can support families, parents, caregivers, adjust their engagement with young people away from psychological control to more parental social support.”

When asked why parental support might result in fewer depressive symptoms, while more negative psychological control had the opposite impact, McCurdy said that the key reasons lie in the fact that support from one’s parent might “help youth cope with stress,” while psychological control “may restrict youth development and independence.”

“An important takeaway from this research is that parents can actually exhibit both parenting practices – and for LGBTQ youth who are not out to their parents, having highly controlling parents appears to undermine even high support that parents may offer,” she explained.

Diversity of the participants

McCurdy’s research surveyed a wide swath of LGBTQ youth. For instance, 252 identified as men, 258 women, and 26 as another gender.

Beyond gender, 35% identified as bisexual, 34% as gay, 20% as lesbian, 6.7% as questioning, and 2.4% as heterosexual or straight but still identified as transgender or gender diverse.

When it comes to racial and ethnic background, the participants were:

• 25% were Black or African American

• 24.4% identified as multiracial or another race

• 22.6% were white or European American

• 6.0% identified as Asian American or Pacific Islander

• 37.1% reported being Hispanic or Latino/a/x

• 8.9% “did not report this information

How positive or parental support affects LGBTQ youth of color

To better understand how some of the most vulnerable young people in American society are affectecd, McCurdy’s research coincidentally is released almost in concert with a new research brief from The Trevor Project.

That brief examines the mental health of Black transgender and nonbinary young people. The data from this research were derived from The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health.

Among the findings, Black transgender and nonbinary young people with high social support from family had 47% lower odds of reporting a suicide attempt in the past year.

“There are many variables that may impact the mental health of any LGBTQ young person, so we cannot draw the direct impact of any single one. However, support and affirmation or rejection from one’s parents and/or guardians often play a critical role,” Jonah DeChants, PhD, research scientist for the nonprofit The Trevor Project, told Healthline. “Our survey research has consistently shown that high social support from family is associated with lower suicide risk among LGBTQ young people.”

Pointing to the statistic of Black transgender and nonbinary youth with parental support having 47% lower odds of reporting a suicide attempt in the past year, DeChants said “these findings point to the reality that when LGBTQ youth feel affirmed in who they are by those closest to them, their ability to maintain positive mental health and well-being becomes more attainable.”

In having these discussions on LGBTQ youth mental health, DeChants stressed that these young people are “not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.” Instead, they are placed at higher risk due to the ways they are stigmatized and mistreated “by anti-LGBTQ bias in society.”

For those LGBTQ young people who have multiple marginalized identities, like Black transgender or nonbinary individuals, the “increased experiences of victimization and discrimination due to the combined effects of both transphobia and racism may exacerbate disparities in suicide risk and negative mental health outcomes,” DeChants added.

Essentially, it’s a call to action that society needs to be intersectional in how it approaches better support for these young people.

Ganson said that once “we start to add on these layers of identities that are marginalized or stigmatized or oppressed in society” the risk for mental health concerns goes up.

“Of course, families, parents, caregivers can be buffers for young people by providing that positive social support to provide a base of acceptance, care, love, that young people may not experience in their greater social life,” he said.

For her part, McCurdy said previous research reveals that discrimination “increases the chance of depression,” and that it is necessary for future research to look at these links among LGBTQ youth of color, especially for those who are nonbinary and transgender.

“Previous research finds that the families of LGBTQ youth of color are incredibly important allies to them in the context of discrimination, and we might find that parent social support is even more strongly linked with less depression for these youth,” McCurdy said.

How parents can be better allies and sources of support

Ganson said that LGBTQ+ young people in particular face marginalization and discrimination based on sexual and gender identity at relatively high rates, something that can particularly be compounded in a damaging way by the kind of psychological control McCurdy’s study highlights.

“Psychological control demonstrates to young people that their opinions or viewpoints don’t matter to their parents, therefore impacting their identity development and self-esteem, possibly leading to depressive symptoms,” he said.

When asked how parents and guardians could be better sources of support for these young people, DeChants asserted that they “do not have to be experts in LGBTQ topics to support the LGBTQ young people in their lives.”

“Previous research shows that actions as simple as parents and caregivers talking with youth respectfully about their LGBTQ identity can be associated with more than 40% lower odds of attempting suicide in the past year,” DeChants added. “When it comes to allyship, self-education is key — and The Trevor Project has a number of resources available that offer best practices for supporting LGBTQ youth, such our Guide to Being an Ally to Transgender and Nonbinary Youth.”

When it comes to what she is looking at ahead with her work, McCurdy said that she is looking forward to investigating how various parenting practices co-occur and “simultaneously influence youth mental health.”

“We are learning that supportive parenting and controlling parenting are not necessarily opposites In many instances, youth perceive a mixture of both as they strive for independence,” McCurdy explained. “I am currently working on several projects related to parenting experiences among transgender and gender expansive youth of color and experiences of LGBTQ youth in foster care or unstable housing.”

Boiling it all down to the essentials, it comes down to empathy, respect, and acceptance.

Ganson added that just “being present and encouraging young people’s exploration of their identity and development of a sense of self” is essential.

“Adolescent development is a challenging time for many given the social pressures and physical, psychological, and emotional changes that occur. Understanding this process and being present to support it is crucial,” he said.

Originally reported at https://www.npr.org/2023/03/01/1160299443/lgbtq-youth-depression-mental-health-study?s=03

In this June 26, 2016, file photo, a woman holds a rainbow flag during the NYC Pride Parade in New York. Seth Wenig/AP

Young people who identify as LGBTQ+ were less likely to report symptoms of depression when they had general support from their parents, according to a study published Tuesday.

Previous research has examined parental support directly tied to a person's LGBTQ+ identity, but the study, which was published by the University of Texas at Austin researchers in the Child Development journal, asked LGBTQ+ youth to answer how often their parents did things like say how proud they were of them or assisted them with activities.

Participants were also asked if their parents exhibited any psychologically controlling behavior, such as asserting their beliefs as the correct ones, whether their caregivers were aware of their LGBTQ+ identity and what kind of thoughts and feelings they had been having in the previous two weeks.

MEDIA

'New York Times' stories on trans youth slammed by writers — including some of its own

"Our research showed that those who felt greater social support from parents tended to have fewer depressive symptoms, whereas those who reported greater psychological control from parents had more depressive symptoms," said Amy McCurdy, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. "For youth whose parents did not know their LGBTQ identities, having a combination of high psychological control and high social support from parents was linked with greater depressive symptoms."

In a sample of 536 LGBTQ+ youth, ages 15 to 21, there were 252 men, 258 women and 26 people who identified differently from man or woman. A little over 35% of the participants identified as bisexual, 34% as gay, 20% as lesbian, 6.7% as questioning and 2.4% as both straight and transgender.

Researchers also examined other variables to reach their results, including race, age and whether or not participants received free or reduced-price lunch in school.

A 2021 survey of 9th- through 12th-graders by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 22% of LGBTQ+ teens reported experiencing sexual violence in the past year, and 52% of LGBTQ+ teens experienced poor mental health in the past year, with 1 in 5 saying they had attempted suicide during that period of time.

CEO Steven Haden joins the Behavioral Health Today Podcast

Thank you to Dr. Graham Taylor with Behavioral Health Today, a Triad production, for inviting our CEO Steven Haden to talk about LGBTQ+ mental health. In this interview, they discuss the importance of increasing access to culturally responsive and affirming care for members of the LGBTQ+ community. Additionally, Steven and Dr. Taylor had the opportunity to talk about the Envision:You approach to community-informed and co-created programs. Take a listen!

#Podcast #LGBTQ #BehavioralHealthToday #HealthPodcast #EnvisionYou #Podcasting #Podcasts #Training #SpotifyPodcast #NewPodcast

Watch the full story at:

https://www.9news.com/video/news/local/lgbtq/steven-haden-talks-about-suicide-prevention-for-the-lgbtq-community/73-106ca9e4-3bd9-4f53-a7a7-058fe78cacba

• New research finds that suicide risk can increase for LGBTQIA+ youth the more they deal with trauma.

• The group found that LGBTQ youth, who reported high levels of trauma symptoms, showed about three times greater odds of attempting suicide in the past year compared to their peers who reported either no or low-to-moderate trauma symptoms.

• Experts say this research is a needed wake-up call to society to offer better support and safeguards for these young people.

Originally reported on https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-trauma-can-drastically-increase-suicide-risk-for-lgbtq-youth#Minority-communities-are-more-at-risk-

During a difficult time in our country where the rights and safety of LGBTQIA+ youth are under attack, nonprofit The Trevor Project released a new research brief that examines the role trauma can play on suicide risk for this community of young people.

Building on past understanding of the elevated presence of trauma-related events in the lives of LGBTQIA+ young people, this new data offers a clear window into the negative effects all of this trauma can have on the overall mental health of these youth.

It especially shows how acutely this impacts vulnerable groups within the greater LGBTQIA+ community – especially those with intersectional identities, from people of color to transgender and nonbinary youth to multisex individuals.

Experts say this research is a needed wake-up call to society to offer better support and safeguards for these young people, especially as they continue to navigate a world that can seem hostile and unsupportive.

A high level of trauma

For the results, The Trevor Project used data from its 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health. The national survey spotlights the responses to a host of questions from 33,993 LGBTQ youth nationwide. They ranged in age from 13 to 24 years old.

The new brief reveals that 37% of these youth reported “high levels of trauma symptoms.”

Out of a possible range of 4 to 16, the nonprofit found the average level of trauma symptoms experienced by LGBTQ youth to be a relatively high 11.72. Just 4% of these young people said they never experienced any trauma symptoms in their lives.

Additionally, 60% said they experienced “low to moderate” levels of trauma symptoms.

When zeroing in on who experienced more trauma than others, the survey shows BIPOC (Black and indigenous, people of color), multisex, and trans and nonbinary youth reported the highest levels. The findings reveal 37% of young, BIPOC LGBTQ people experience high levels of trauma symptoms compared to 36% of their white peers.

Within young people of color, Native American and indigenous youth were at the highest levels at 52%, followed by Middle Eastern/Northern African young people at 44%.

Youth who identified as gay were at 29%, those who identified as lesbian were at 38%, bisexual youth were at 33%, queer youth at 42%, pansexual youth at 43%, and 38% of asexual young people self-reported high levels of trauma symptoms. Those who were “unsure” about their sexual orientation were at 38%.

When it came to gender identity, 44% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported high levels of trauma symptoms compared to their cisgender LGBQ peers at 25%.

The numbers were consistent through different age groups. Younger youth — ages 13 to 17 — were at 36%, a number that was similar for 18 to 24-year-olds at 37%.

The group found that LGBTQ youth, who reported high levels of trauma symptoms, showed a drastically increased risk of attempting suicide, about three times greater the odds of attempting suicide in the past year compared to their peers who reported either no trauma symptoms or low-to-moderate trauma symptoms.

One out of every four youth with high self-reported trauma symptoms reported a suicide attempt, while just 3% of those with no trauma symptoms reported a suicide attempt in the past year. About 9% of those with low-to-moderate trauma symptoms reported a suicide attempt during the same period.

Across all demographics — crossing racial and ethnic lines, sexualities, and gender identities — trauma symptoms were tied to elevated incidence of past-year suicide attempts.

“The association that we observed between trauma and suicide risk was expected,” said Myeshia Price (pronouns she/they) PhD, senior research scientist at The Trevor Project, when asked what was most surprising about the survey results. “However, seeing the result that LGBTQ youth who reported high levels of trauma symptoms had over three times greater odds of attempting suicide in the past year was staggering.”

When asked what accounts for high levels of trauma symptoms among this particular community of young people in the United States, Price told Healthline that many LGBTQ youth may commonly experience trauma due to “discrimination and victimization” that is tied directly to their sexual orientation and gender identities.

This could include physical harm based on your sexual orientation, or simply “being denied access to a particular space because of one’s gender identity.” These are simply experiences that “straight, cisgender youth” might never have to experience in their lives, Price added.

“That said, it is important to underscore that LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to trauma, but rather, they are often subjected to it as a result of how their identities are stigmatized in society,” she said.

Kyle T. Ganson, PhD, MSW, an assistant professor who is part of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto, who was not associated with this research, told Healthline that these young people face “many social stressors” tied directly to their sexual and/or gender identity.

Ganson said that this bullying victimization and discrimination can result in “poor psychological health, such as trauma-related symptoms.”

“This may manifest as feeling on guard, having nightmares, pervasive negative thoughts, and feeling unsafe. These symptoms are a direct response to adverse and traumatic social experiences and are intended to protect or provide a false sense of safety for the youth, despite being problematic,” he added.

Minority communities are more at risk

Price pointed to the high levels of trauma that young people of color, as well as multisex, transgender, and nonbinary individuals experience in their lives compared to their cisgender and white peers.

“The Trevor Project often points back to The Minority Stress Model to help explain mental health disparities experienced by LGBTQ individuals. This model suggests that experiences of LGBTQ-based victimization — and the internalization of these experiences and anti-LGBTQ messages — can compound and produce negative mental health outcomes and increase suicide risk among the LGBTQ community,” Price explained.

“Especially amid our current polarizing and often politically hostile environment, LGBTQ youth who hold multiple marginalized identities may face discrimination and victimization based not only on their sexual orientation or gender identity, but also their race, ethnicity, and/or a number of other aspects that make up their full selves,” they added.

Ganson echoed those thoughts, explaining that this survey holds up past research that reveals that inhabiting multiple, intersecting minority identities “can exacerbate the effects of minority-related stressors,” which can compound “the negative and adverse effects, such as trauma and anxiety-related symptoms.”

“These youth are trying to navigate complex social situations that often marginalize them due to their gender identity and their racial and ethnic identity. This is particularly challenging for youth who are searching for a sense of identity and social acceptance,” Ganson added.

“Of course, this is stressful for many and can cause adverse psychological effects. Additionally, these youth may be less inclined to seek mental health treatment for fear of not receiving adequate and affirming care, thus their symptoms may become more engrained and amplified,” he said.

Of course, the link between trauma and associated suicide risk is troubling. To put this in context, Ganson explained that for some people the repeated experience of traumatic symptoms on a daily basis can be challenging especially for “those who don’t receive appropriate care.”

“Therefore, these youth may seek extreme and dangerous ways to manage their symptoms. This may manifest in non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors, such as cutting, and suicidal behaviors, such as suicidal ideation and suicide planning and attempts,” he said. “It is likely that those with more trauma symptoms may experience a greater degree of suicidal behavior as the intensity of the trauma symptoms are likely unbearable at times.”

Ganson added that for some people, suicide might appear “the only way to relieve the suffering they are experiencing.” They might also believe that suicide is the only way they can “remove themselves from social situations that cause trauma.”

“They may also internalize that they are a burden to others based on the identities they hold and the challenges they may be experiencing. It is most important to understand the unique and individual link between trauma and mental health symptoms and suicidal behavior for each youth in order to support them effectively and increase overall safety,” Ganson said.

Looking ahead

Does this data offer a roadmap to ways society can better assist these young people? Ganson thinks so.

“This is a large problem that needs to be addressed from multiple angles. As a society, we need to become more open and accepting to all individuals no matter their gender, sexual identity, and racial and ethnic identity,” Ganson stressed. “This requires work at the micro, individual level, as well as the macro and policy, political, and ideological level.”

He said that we need to ensure the settings that these young people engage in – think schools, healthcare settings, extracurricular activities – stand as equitable, safe spaces with policies in place “that address issues related to discrimination and marginalization of youth based on the identities they hold.”

“We need to ensure that professionals – i.e., teachers, providers, and doctors – are trained in providing affirming care and support to ensure that spaces youth engage in are safe for all and to reduce avoidance of help-seeking,” he added.

Price explained that given discrimination, harassment, and violence all contribute to one’s trauma symptoms, enacting policies that can support and protect LGBTQ youth can be helpful interventions for reducing the said trauma symptoms. This, in turn, can lower suicide risk among these young people.

“Further, research has consistently demonstrated that protective factors such as family acceptance and affirming environments can help address these disparities. We encourage all people – and especially youth-serving professionals – to create LGBTQ-inclusive, affirming environments for youth,” Price added. “Taking relatively simple steps to show LGBTQ youth that they belong can have enormous, potentially life-saving impacts.”

When asked what is next for this look into the link between trauma and suicide risk among LGBTQIA+ youth, Price said this research brief “illuminated a number of important insights into the realities that many LGBTQ youth experiencing trauma symptoms face.” As a result, The Trevor Project hopes to examine this more.

“In particular, we hope to better explore effective ways to help LGBTQ youth manage, or reduce, their trauma symptoms to help them lead healthier, happier lives,” Price said.

Rising high school senior Jameson Johnson is among the thousands of LGBTQ students returning to school at a time when conservative lawmakers and activists are pushing to ban or limit the rights of queer people in schools and beyond.

State legislatures considered dozens of bills targeting LGBTQ youth this year, with the number of proposed measures targeting access to bathrooms and locker rooms and transgender participation in school sports exploding, according to Education Week.

Florida and at least 10 other states have blocked the use of Medicaid to pay for gender-affirming care, though a few, including Hawaii, are expanding the same kind of care. In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state’s child protection agency to investigate parents who seek gender-affirming care for their children as child abuse, though a judge has blocked some of that order. A Utah judge last week blocked a ban on transgender students participating in school sports, but students now face a commission who will decide whether they can play on a case-by-case basis.

“I feel these laws are out of misinformation and ignorance of the queer community," Johnson said. "I'm lucky that I live in Colorado. … We don't have as many anti-queer youth bills or laws yet.”

The suicide rate among LGBTQ youth has escalated over the past three years, according to the Trevor Project. And about two-thirds of LGBTQ youth told the nonprofit that current and proposed state policies have had a negative impact on their mental health.

As a genderfluid person, Johnson, 17, recognizes the importance of using his voice for those in need for the upcoming school year.

Johnson, who goes by he, she or they, will be president of the Queer Student Alliance at his Denver high. For him, senior year of high school will be about advocating for LGBTQ students around the country who face new restrictions on their rights. He said he plans to create a safe space for the LGBTQ students on his campus in part because of a lack of counselors at the school.

"I think we need a safer place for queer students so that they can just have an area to relax," said Johnson, and "making sure they're okay because school can be really stressful for them."

He grew up in a family that was supportive: His mother allowed him to explore his identity. He used to play dress-up with his sister's clothes and would have tea parties and fashion shows.

"I was very feminine within my family setting, and I guess that carried over to the school and with my friends,” Johnson said. "It was nice to be raised without traditional gender roles."

He said he hopes to provide the same acceptance and comfort to his peers and that colleges and universities will also take notice as he begins the application process.

“I hope they can notice my journey and activism,” Johnson said.