LGBT training for educators and mental health services is a priority, according to a new inquiry into the mental health of young WA people.
The inquiry was released last week by the Commissioner for Children and Young People. The inquiry began late last year and the report revealed that four out of five WA children and young people with serious mental disorders were missing out on treatment because of underfunding of services. The report touched on diverse sexuality and gender (DSG) with consultations from the Freedom Centre and the Youth Affairs Council WA.
The report found marginalisation and discrimination were barriers to the use of mainstream services. Also In the report, the Freedom Centre called on Western Australian schools and mainstream mental health services to ‘ensure non-discriminatory environments and services was a priority’.
‘Negative mental health indicators happen when people discriminate on the grounds of sexuality and gender; that’s verbal abuse, physical abuse, exclusion and marginalisation.’ the Freedom Centre’s Dani Wright said.
Wright said young LGBTI people endured worse negative mental health indicators because of discrimination, not because they were DSG. She said the Freedom Centre had always provided specific training but had only had the opportunity to provide it to WA schools occasionally.
‘It’s about training teachers to make sure that the discrimination that causes poor mental health is addressed and it’s not easy, especially when you don’t know the facts of same-sex attraction or sex and gender diversity, so people need to know that,’ Wright said.
The Commissioner recommended that the Mental Health Commission identify the specific requirements of DSG people; nine other categories of vulnerable or disadvantaged young people were included in the recommendation. WA Commissioner for Children and Young People Michelle Scott also promoted the on-going development of evidence-based anti-bullying programs from state and Commonwealth governments.
The WA Department of Education recently invited world-leading experts in bullying research, Professor Christina Salmivalli and WA’s Professor Donna Cross to work with educators on anti-bullying practices.
In a statement, Education Minister Liz Constable said the workshops would give school principals, teachers and psychologists an ‘important grounding’ in the effort against bullying.
Wright said she was generally happy with the Department of Education’s anti-bullying efforts in WA schools but the programs in place neglected to explicitly address LGBTI related discrimination and marginalisation which needs to be addressed to ensure the mental health and wellbeing of the 1-in-10 of students that are same sex attracted, and sex and/or gender diverse.
Benn Dorrington
This article was first published on May 13, 2011
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