Mental health and LGBT people: Evidence into action.

A Joint meeting took place between Leicestershire Partnership Trust and De Montfort University to discuss LGBT mental health. Just six months previously, a gay man and his friend had been set on fire while sitting in a pub garden in Leicester and we met out of concern about the impact on the mental health of local LGBT communities. JF’s 2012 book was just published (March) which included a substantial chapter that reviewed the existing evidence about LGBT mental health and the implications for service delivery. This provided evidential support on which the LPT could make a case to commissioners to establish a discrete service for LGBT people in mental distress. Leon Herbert led this work and the Improved Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service, part of the OpenMind initiative, was launched in September 2013. Kevin Fenton, the Director of the national IAPT service, attended along with a number of Department of Health policymakers, local practitioners and commissioners. This pioneering service is one of only two such services in the UK and it provides personalised mental health services where LGBT people can self refer rather than being referred by their GP (and face the prospect of disclosing their sexual orientation or gender identity) by practitioners knowledgeable about the social context for promoting better mental health in LGBT communities.