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LGBT+ History Month & Time to Talk Day!

LGBT+ History Month

February is marked as LGBT+ history month in the UK and provides an opportunity to connect and reflect on the past and present of the LGBT+ Community. This also helps to celebrate the culture and progress towards equality over time.  

This year's theme is Medicine: Under the Scope. It celebrates LGBT+ people’s contribution to medicine and healthcare – with a focus on LGBTQ+ health inequalities and the amazing work of LGBTQ+ healthcare professionals.  

Over the course of the month, we will be celebrating across the month our colleagues from all over the patch by posting a series of blogs and posts raising awareness for all our LGBT+ colleagues. We would like to raise awareness around topics such as: healthcare inequalities, micro aggressions, and historical figures.   

Launching this month in style we are acknowledging Time to Talk day and we are recognising how anyone could be affected by mental health and wellbeing as well as within the LGBT+ Community. 

 

What is Time to Talk Day? 

Time to talk occurs annually to encourage friends, families, communities, and workplaces to come together to talk, listen and change lives.  

Today encourages people to have those all-important conversations, encouraging regular check-ins with colleagues, family members or friends around the importance of your very own mental health and wellbeing.   

According to the most recent YouGov survey, from 2022, LGBT+ Britons are more likely to suffer with mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia.  

Within this, half of LGBT+ Britons (51%) stated that they experienced or had been diagnosed with a mental health condition which is a significant rise when compared to the general population of 32%. 

According to mentalhealth-uk.org there is a strong connection between the topic of mental health and the LGBTQ+ community which should be considered. 

Many studies have explored the mental health of people within LGBT+ communities, which have shown a range of concerning figures: 

  • LGBT+ people are more at risk of self-harm and suicidal behaviour. 
  • Gay and bisexual men are 4 times more likely to attempt suicide across their lifetime than the rest of the population. 
  • LGBT+ people are 1 and a half times more likely to develop depression and anxiety disorder compared to the rest of the population.  

Today recognises the difficulties of talking about mental health and opening up and wishes to emphasise the positive impact that a conversation can have on someone's life.  

To get involved in Time to Talk day we have included some useful conversation starters to begin those more difficult conversations here.  

And if you are interested in furthering your knowledge around the subject of Mental Health, the mental health charity Mind have created a free 90-minuete online course on having those mental health conversations in the community.  

For more information and to sign-up for this course please click here. 

Upcoming Events 

We will be sharing inclusive events that you can attend to extend your knowledge of LGBT+ History Month through the month. To start with, please consider attending the upcoming ENEI events outlined below: 

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