Reducing Health Inequities Among Sexual Minority Populations
Reducing Health Inequities Among Sexual Minority Populations
Summary: We use a broad range of approaches (including epidemiology, qualitative research, and mixed methods) to understand how and why sexual minority populations (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and other non-heterosexual people) experience multiple, co-occurring and avoidable health disparities. Much of this research focuses on mental (e.g., suicide, anxiety) and sexual health outcomes that relate to a social stigma and stress process, also known as “minority stress.”
One consequence of stigma and stress processes is that socially stigmatized individuals may avoid, delay, or conceal information during healthcare encounters and thereby miss opportunities for early/preventive mental healthcare. We therefore work with public health and community partners to describe how public health settings (e.g., sexual health clinics) can address unmet healthcare needs of sexual minority clients. This research additionally explores the co-occurrence and interaction of sexual and mental health among sexual health service clients.
Research Objectives:
- To quantify and explain health inequities that disproportionately affect sexual minority populations
- To explore how, why, and among whom sexual and mental health concerns interact
- To identify public health and community-based sites to intervene early and prevent mental health and substance use concerns among sexual minority people
Principal Investigators: Travis Salway
Key Team Members: We’re just getting started. Contact Travis if you are interested in joining!
Partners:
- Simon Fraser University, Faculty of Health Sciences
- BC Centre for Disease Control
- Community-Based Research Centre
- The Roundtable: BC’s LGBTQ2 Mental Health & Substance Use Networking Space
- Dr. Rod Knight, BC Centre on Substance Use
Funding: Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research