“We're the Normal Ones Here”: Community Involvement, Peer Support, and Transgender Mental Health

Johnson, Austin H.; Rogers, Baker A.

doi:10.1111/soin.12347

Cited by 50 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Mental health inequalities are even more pronounced within some LGBTQ subcommunities. People with trans histories, for example, experience exceptionally high levels of suicidality (Johnson & Rogers, 2020 ). The largest study to date of young trans and gender diverse people in Australia (those aged between 14 and 25) found that almost half of the 859 participants had made attempts at taking their own life (Strauss et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Nature and Impact of Informal Mental Health Support in an LGBTQ Context: Exploring Peer Roles and Their Challenges

et al. 2022

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Background Research shows that LGBTQ communities experience high levels of suicidality and mental ill health. They also face significant barriers to accessing adequate mental health treatment in service settings. In response to these factors, it is likely that LGBTQ community members turn to their peers for informal mental health-related support. Such support, however, is largely undefined, the extent of it poorly understood and its impacts on those who perform it underexplored. Methods We explored the nature and impact of informal mental health-related support provided by peers in LGBTQ communities in Melbourne, Australia. Drawing on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 25 LGBTQ adults in 2020, we explored how and why peers provided mental health support to friends, partners, housemates and even strangers and the impact this had on them. Results We found that participants performed support roles as extensions of their existing relationships. We demonstrate that the support roles of the safe friend, housemate and partner, among others, represent everyday relationships stretched—even to breaking point—to incorporate informal mental health support. Each of these support roles is distinct, but they can all potentially result in similar impacts on those performing them. One of the more significant of these is burnout. Conclusions LGBTQ community members face a diverse range of challenges when they support peers with their mental health. Informal peer-support roles are a significant responsibility for those performing them. LGBTQ community members stepping up to support others should be better supported to help manage their roles and the impacts of performing them. Policy Implications Findings can contribute to policy that not only addresses high levels of mental ill health in LGBTQ communities, but also seeks to help peers in support roles to prevent them from being negatively impacted.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Nature and Impact of Informal Mental Health Support in an LGBTQ Context: Exploring Peer Roles and Their Challenges

et al. 2022

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“…Funding for community-led organisations, informed by lived experience, is an essential step in overcoming these barriers. 57 This has been modelled by the Translatin@ coalition, which combats violence and the incarceration and marginalisation of transgender people across the USA through community programmes. 58,59 Community-led organisations provide practical and emotional support and opportunities to cultivate individual resilience in the form of hope, self-affirmation, connection and purpose.…”

Section: Living With Intersecting Layers Of Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Lived experiences of transgender forced migrants and their mental health outcomes: systematic review and meta-ethnography

et al. 2022

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Background Owing to multiple, complex and intersecting health inequities, systemic oppression and violence and discrimination in their home countries, some transgender people are forced to migrate to countries that offer them better legal protection and wider social acceptance. Aims This review sought to explore and understand the multiple factors that shape the mental health outcomes of transgender forced migrants (TFMs). Method We systematically searched nine electronic databases for multidisciplinary literature (PROSPERO ID: CRD42020183062). We used a meta-ethnographic approach to synthesise data. We completed a quality appraisal and developed a socio-ecological model to draw together our findings. Results We retrieved 3399 records and screened titles, abstracts and full text to include 24 qualitative studies in this review. The synthesis identified individual survival strategies and factors in interpersonal, organisational and societal environments that contributed to profound deprivation and mental distress in TFMs. Pervasive and persistent violence and discrimination, economic exclusion, barriers to healthcare and a dependency on legal documentation were identified as key factors leading to poor mental health outcomes. Sources of resilience included community acceptance and support, being granted asylum, societal affirmation of gender, fulfilment of basic rights and healthcare access. Individual strategies for survival, such as hope and having purpose in life, were important in bringing relief from distress. Conclusions Improved communication and knowledge about the unique needs and concerns of TFMs through interventions at the individual, interpersonal, organisational and societal levels are necessary to improve mental health outcomes.

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“…Research also finds that cisgender people often draw upon religious, scientific, and media representations of a cisgender‐only society to demonize transgender people and justify opposition to transgender civil rights (Mathers, Sumerau, and Cragun 2018). Such educational and cultural representations also provide medical practitioners with vocabularies of motive for denying care to transgender patients (see, e.g., Johnson and Rogers 2020; Pearce 2018; Shuster 2016). Further, statistical analyses confirm these findings by demonstrating less acceptance of transgender people (as compared to other minority groups) among both religious and nonreligious individuals (Cragun and Sumerau 2017), and systemic medical disparities in access and care for transgender people (Miller and Grollman 2015).…”

Section: Vocabularies Of Motivementioning

confidence: 99%

Transgender Possibilities and the Cisgendering of Family among Cisgender Women

Sumerau

Holway

2021

Symbolic Interaction

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In this article, we examine vocabularies of motive concerning the possibility of transgender partners and children. Data from 20 in-depth interviews with (mostly white) cisgender college-aged women in the southeastern United States were analyzed to determine how they construct familial ideals predicated upon cisgender norms and assumptions. Participants respond to the possibility of transgender family members by mobilizing vocabularies of ( 1) claiming exemptions and (2) emphasizing difficulty. We draw out implications for understanding vocabularies of cisgendering family that create the conditions for transgender marginalization within families, and the consequences cisgendering family has for the reproduction of inequality.

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“We're the Normal Ones Here”: Community Involvement, Peer Support, and Transgender Mental Health

Cited by 50 publications

References 52 publications

The Nature and Impact of Informal Mental Health Support in an LGBTQ Context: Exploring Peer Roles and Their Challenges

The Nature and Impact of Informal Mental Health Support in an LGBTQ Context: Exploring Peer Roles and Their Challenges

Lived experiences of transgender forced migrants and their mental health outcomes: systematic review and meta-ethnography

Transgender Possibilities and the Cisgendering of Family among Cisgender Women

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