Expert says LGBTQ+ suicide prevention should take a broader approach

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Providing resources to assist LGBTQ+ youth before they reach a crisis point was the key message made during a presentation Thursday that kicked off a three-day conference on suicide awareness and prevention.

The ninth annual Kevin’s Song Conference on Suicide is being held through Saturday at St. John’s Resort in Plymouth, bringing together educators, mental health professionals, and community leaders as well as members of the public, including survivors of suicide loss.

Thursday’s focus was on youth mental health and how schools can best build awareness and help implement prevention strategies. Among those speaking was Dr. Brett Harris, senior research scientist in the Public Health department at NORC – University of Chicago, whose presentation was titled, “Supporting the Mental Wellbeing of LGBTQIA2S+ Youth: Strategies and Resources for Creating Safe and Affirming Schools and Communities”.

Harris told the Michigan Advance that working with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), they developed a series of resource guides to support LGBTQ+ youth through a series of interviews with professionals and advocates, as well as youth and their parents. 

She said given the current political climate, it’s vital to make sure accurate and data-tested information is reaching both school professionals and parents.

“Given the environment that we’re in now with the change of administration, that we had the inaugural address saying there are only two genders, man and a woman, that it’s more important than ever to create safe information environments for LGBTQIA2S+ youth,” she said. 

Harris said the purpose of her presentation was to give the audience tangible actions that they can do to support LGBTQ+ youth. 

“Things that they can do and things that they can tell their friends, their colleagues and their family about and then they can do it, very simple things that will help counteract environments that are less supportive,” she said. 

Harris said her approach to suicide prevention and promoting mental well-being is an “upstream” one that begins long before a child is in crisis and is as simple as actively listening and showing support. 

“What is the idea of being an ally? Is it displaying a rainbow sticker and you say I’m an ally or is it more of a verb? How do you ally? When did you last ally? It really should be actively supporting, modeling language, using pronouns and chosen names, things as simple as that,” she said, adding that the approach is predicated on not assuming that because someone is LGBTQ+, doesn’t mean they automatically will be suicidal. 

“There are positives. It’s the pride of the communities that you’re a part of and there is hope and joy and it’s a good thing, that type of way of communicating,” she said. “Bringing across that message versus ‘Oh my God, LGBTQIA2S+, those people are higher risk of suicide, they’re a higher risk of ABCDEFG’ like it’s a terrible thing. Instead, changing that to a message of positivity, hope, joy and resilience.”

But Harris notes that LGBTQ+ youth are at a higher risk for suicide, a fact born out in the latest survey by the Trevor Project, which found thay 39% of LGBTQ+ young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including 46% of transgender and nonbinary young people. 

However, she says they need to adopt an approach that doesn’t exclusively focus on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

“They struggle with the same other things that other youth, heterosexual and CIS-gender youth struggle with as well, so I think that different programs and intervention services and resources for all youth help benefit LGBTQIA2S+ youth,” she said.

Harris said the resource guide she walked the audience through provides guidance to anyone who lives and works with LGBTQ+ youth, including specific guides for school professionals, health care providers, state agencies, as well as parents, families and communities, noting that different regions also may have different needs.

“I’ve done some work in other areas that are not supportive and we’re not even allowed to do particular programming in school, so what we do is we take programs that are geared towards all students and we implement those and it helps to create a safe and supportive environment for all of the youth and a culture of support,” she said.

Hartis said her background is in public health and ultimately she believes suicide prevention is best examined from a public health lens. 

“LGBTQIA2S+ youth may be struggling with things, but is it all specific to gender identity and sexual orientation or is it larger?” she said. “It is larger, so I think the public health approach is really important.”