Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Sharpe, Jacqueline A., MRCPsych

Titel

36.1 LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER YOUTH IN THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN

Ist Teil von

• Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2016-10, Vol.55 (10), p.S55-S55

Ort / Verlag

Baltimore: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Quelle

Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ASSIA)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Objectives: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth in the Caribbean struggle with stigma, discrimination, and bullying, as well as an increased risk of violent attacks. The consequences of these situations undermine their mental health while the high level of societal intolerance reduces the likelihood that they will seek mental health services. This presentation examines the legal and societal situation of LGBT individuals in English-speaking Caribbean countries and the impact that both sets of circumstances have on the mental health of LGBT young people and adolescents. Methods: The legal and societal situations in various countries of the Anglophone Caribbean from the perspective of LGBT individuals are reviewed, and the literature, including the stories of LGBT youth themselves where available, is examined. Clinical vignettes of individual adolescents are presented to illustrate the mental health issues they present. Results: Little clinical research on the mental health of Caribbean LGBT adolescents is published to date. The impact of the existing and varied criminal law and resistance of the societies to change on the LGBT individuals is illustrated by events, among other things, in Belize, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Bahamas. The clinical mental health situations of the adolescent LBGT individuals from the clinical examples provided are illustrated, and the work of some young LGBT activists is noted. Conclusions: LGBT youth in the English-speaking Caribbean countries are vulnerable to significant stigma and discrimination, and trauma often manifests as bullying and violence against them. They are marginalized by outdated and repressive laws against "sodomy/ buggery" and "gross indecency." Their mental health issues frequently remain unrecognized and unaddressed.