Diane Abbott to urge government to act on LGBT mental health issues
Diane Abbott is set to address the issue of growing mental health issues in the London LGBT community.
Speaking at a debate this afternoon Hackney Labour MP Diane Abbott will will warn of growing mental health challenges affecting London’s LGBT community, urging the government to act.
The backbench business debate entitled ‘Mental Health and Wellbeing of Londoners’ will highlight increasing levels of self-harm and growing prevalence of homophobic hate crime within the community across the city.
Diane Abbott will make a connection between the growing problems associated with mental health in London’s LGT community and the pressure on mental health provisions facing government cuts.
The debate will discuss what the government is doing to improve training NHS staff of the specific health needs of LGBT people. The community is 50% more likely to report negative experiences with primary care services.
In a statement ahead of the debate, she said: “When it comes to the provision of mental health care for LGBT Londoners, increased localism through the recent NHS re-organisation is letting down the community.”
Research from RAND Corporation, the University of Cambridge, and Harvard Medical School found that sexual Minorities were 2 to 3 times more likely to report having a longstanding psychological or emotional problem than their heterosexual counterparts.
Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) Londoners who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and experience significantly higher rates of self-harm and suicide than the population generally. 26% have deliberately harmed themselves in the last year compared to 0.4% of the general population
Diane Abbott will argue that London Mayor Boris Johnson has missed a vital opportunity to argue the case for a pan-London approach to address the current and future needs of the LGBT community.
