Exciting news: our NIHR-funded COLLAGE study is now officially underway at @imh-uob.bsky.social, exploring how care-experienced young people in England seek mental health support.
We’re also thrilled to welcome @errwallace.bsky.social to the research team! 🌈🧠
www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2025/na...
🔚 Bottom line:
LGBTQA+ students face significantly higher risks for mental health disorders and suicidality.
Prevention starts with inclusion, safety, and support — at home and on campus.
Read the full study here 👉 doi.org/10.1186/s128...
#MentalHealthMatters
🏫 Educational settings can play a key role in harm reduction
The study calls for:
✅ Inclusive policies
✅ Trauma-informed mental health support
✅ Anti-bullying interventions
✅ Early screening & support
📌 What predicts suicide attempts in LGBTQA+ students?
According to multivariate analysis:
Childhood trauma
Recent bullying
Self-harm
are all major risk factors — even more than depression or PTSD alone.
⚠️ Critically, LGBTQA+ students began experiencing depression and suicidal thoughts around age 12–13, earlier than heterosexual peers
This underlines the imperative for early intervention
🏠 Childhood adversities were strikingly common:
Physical abuse (6.3% vs 1.6%)
Emotional abuse (11.7% vs 2.6%)
Parental mental illness (11.1% vs 5.7%)
LGBTQA+ students were also less likely to feel emotionally close to family
🧠 51% of LGBTQA+ students had experienced probable PTSD
⚠️ 46.6% reported lifetime suicidal ideation
💔 14.2% had attempted suicide in their lifetime
These rates are significantly higher than for heterosexual students of the same age
📊 Key findings:
LGBTQA+ students were:
2x more likely to experience depression
2x more likely to engage in self-harm
3x more likely to have made a suicide plan
compared to heterosexual peers
🚨 New research out today in BMC Public Health reveals concerning mental health disparities among LGBTQA+ higher education students in Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland.
Link to study: doi.org/10.1186/s128...
🗣️Read more about our findings below:
If you are attending the International Society of Critical Health Psychology conference this week in Galway, come along to the O’hEocha Theatre on Friday at 2:30pm.
I'll be discussing the impact of 'negotiating multiple minoritised identities' with trans and gender-diverse youth in N.Ireland👇
Trans+ legal experts warn Supreme Court ruling could breach human rights as 60+ attend Parliament briefing
www.attitude.co.uk/news/trans-l...
NEW: The Cass Review into UK trans healthcare is 'deeply flawed', containing biased research, outdated data, and manipulated evidence, an international team of experts has said
Read more on this story: www.thenational.scot/news/2516682...
Paper accepted at BMC Public Health this week 🙂
'Mental health disorders, childhood adversities, and recent stressors as risk factors for non-suicidal self-injury and suicidality among LGBTQA+ higher education students'.
Thanks to co-authors - paper coming soon! 👀
Hi Willem, I’ve just dropped you an email about this and whether the post is flexible with hybrid/remote working. Very interested!
I’ll tell you what I see when I look at the #RainbowMap 2025, which was published this morning, an absolute failure of government.
The UK once stood proudly at the top of Europe on LGBTI legal equality. Now we’ve slipped into the yellow.
Well done to all the countries continuing to make progress.
New Publication Alert 📢
I am proud to share my latest publication where we explored how school practices across 13 European countries impact the mental health of sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth.
🔗 Read the full article: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
#lgbtqi #mentalhealth #inclusion
Practical things you can do as a Cis ally:
- Write to your MP
- Protest
- Give funds to Trans led advocacy groups
- Use whatever social capital you have to support your workplace, your kids schools, your communities to resist the erasure of Trans people from public life.
Another update to the map of protests against the Supreme Court judgement
(Green markers for completed demos, red for upcoming)
www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/e...
I make that 72 protests and counting now
Keep following and supporting @whatthetrans.com for updates
There is still plenty of time to apply for our FUNDED #PhD opportunities in the School of Health Sciences at @uniofsurrey.bsky.social
If you are interested in women nurses experiences of #Whistleblowing or #Bullying take a look.
Closing date 11th May.
www.surrey.ac.uk/fees-and-fun...
Funded PhD opportunity about LGBTQ+ people & adult social care with an incredible supervisory team at the University of Bristol consisting of Profs @jasonschaub.bsky.social & David Abbott. Applications due 15/05/25 with PhD starting September 2025. More info here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMP621/p...
Thanks to my wonderful supervisors and co-authors @profsiobhanon.bsky.social and @susanlagdon.bsky.social
We’ve just published our first paper with @psyarxivbot.bsky.social
Our qualitative (IPA) paper explores the complex intersection of sexual orientation, gender identity, and suicidality among transgender and gender-diverse young people in Northern Ireland.
Read it here: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Ah thank you. Best of luck with your ethics assignment!
Thanks so much for highlighting this Madi. Protective factors, particularly individual and community strengths and resiliency are so often over-shadowed. Glad we could emphasise this in our scoping review. Of course, we wish LGBTQ+ young people did not need this resiliency in the first place! 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
The Executive Ban isn't just about puberty blockers but about the systemic failure of Stormont to cater to LGBTQ community needs...
Not one single mention of LGBTQ people in the new Programme for Government.
PRIDE IS A PROTEST! And we will continue to use it to call their failures out!
A heartfelt thank you to Professor Latu at Queens University, for inviting me to give a 2-hr guest lecture on LGBTQA+ suicide prevention. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
We discussed gender and sexuality norms, heteronormativity, minority stress, intersectionality, queer theory, healthcare needs, and some research findings.
Today marks five years since the first same-sex marriages took place in N.Ireland 🥳
I love my wife so much, I married her twice. Only joking, we were just being discriminated against the first time 😉
#NorthernIreland #Equality 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
Doing a PhD is hard, but never underestimate the value of doing work that you are passionate about, to feel seen and heard, and like you belong somewhere.
The past two years have changed my life immeasurably, and I will always be so grateful. Keep going! 😊 #phdlife
Delighted to have been invited back to Queens University to give a guest lecture on 6th Feb. Massive thanks to Professor Latu.
We will be discussing sexuality and gender norms in suicide research, some research findings, and theories inc. minority stress, intersectionality and queer theory. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
It definitely deserves its place 🙂