Value: 100 points
Due: Day 7
Grading Category: Assignments
After you complete the readings, choose a topic related to LGBTQI behavioral/mental health. Examples include stigma, trauma, domestic violence, homelessness, bullying or bipolar disorder.
In a Word document, write a synthesis paper that addresses the following sections:
- Introduction to topic: How does this topic contribute to mental distress and diagnoses?
- Epidemiology and economic costs to society
- Overview of the assessment/tools to assess for DSM-5 disorder
- Pharmacological interventions Plan of care to include holistic interventions and psychotherapeutic options.
Your paper should be four to five pages long (not counting the cover sheet or APA references list) and follow APA formatting for all components.
Homelessness Among LGBTQ+ Population
In the United States, LGBTQ youth are more likely to experience homelessness and housing instability. This increased risk of homelessness and housing instability has a negative impact on LGBTQ teenagers’ mental health. This paper examines the relationship between LGBTQ youth’s mental health symptoms and homelessness and other manifestations of housing instability based on data from the 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health.
Youth homelessness is on the rise in America. According to the True Colors Fund, 1.6 million young people experience homelessness each year, with 40% of them being LGBT (Rhoades et al., 2018). Since LGBT youth make up only 7% of the entire youth population, the proportion of homeless youth is astounding (Rhoades et al., 2018).
Homelessness and Mental Illness, and Gender Dysphoria
Compared to 10% of LGBTQ kids who are not experiencing homelessness, 35% of those who are homeless or have unstable housing reported having attempted suicide in the previous year. Among LGBTQ homeless kids, there is a two-to-four-fold rise in despair, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts.
In comparison to sexual minorities, heterosexuals have lower incidence of mental health issues, substance use disorders, and specific health issues. According to the DSM-5, adult males who were born as males are more likely than females to have gender dysphoria (Nahata et al., 2017). When children are born as boys, it is 2-4.5 times higher in boys than in girls. The opinions that men and women have regarding teenagers are comparable (Nahata et al., 2017).
Suicidality was more prevalent among young people who had been homeless. According to some research, taxpayers can spend up to $50,000 a year on those who are chronically homeless (Nahata et al., 2017).
Gender Dysphoria among Homeless LGBTQs
The basic need for diagnosing gender dysphoria in adults and teenagers is a clear discrepancy between the gender a patient believes themselves to be and the gender society views them to be. The last six months must have seen the fulfillment of two or more of the following requirements (American Psychiatric Association, 2013):
• Discordance between the patient’s self-perception and the gender to which they have been assigned.
• In early teenagers, the urge to shed their primary and secondary sex traits in order to stop secondary features from maturing.
• There is a strong desire to have sex traits from the opposing gender. There is a great yearning to change into another gender.
• They must be treated equally by society with all genders.
• The condition should also be linked to clinically substantial distress or have a considerable effect on the person’s social, occupational, and other elements of life. • The feelings and reactions of another gender are strongly assured to you.
Pharmacological Intervention
Gender-affirming pharmaceutical therapies can help adolescents with gender dysphoria achieve better psychological well-being and mental health outcomes. Interventions can be totally reversible or somewhat irreversible depending on the adolescent’s age and sexual development. Age at which therapy should begin, length of treatment, safety of treatment, and expense of each intervention are all subject to debates and ethical quandaries (Fraser et al., 2019).
In order to establish whether hormone blockers are a possibility for young individuals who fulfill precise criteria for gender dysphoria, they may be sent to a hormone specialist (consultant endocrinologist). There is also access to psychological support. Hormone therapy helps you feel more self-assured in addition to improving how you look and feel. Hormones must be taken for the remainder of your life, regardless of gender surgery.
Hormone therapy is one of the many treatments available for gender dysphoria. Additionally accessible are vocal treatment and psychological help. Your clinic staff will discuss hormone therapy before making a choice. Both drugs inhibit the release of “unwanted” hormones in addition to decreasing the release of “unwanted” hormones (Flentje et al., 2016). Although hormone therapy can be beneficial after a few months, the lengthy wait for results can be discouraging.
Additionally, it’s crucial to keep in mind that some characteristics, like your height or shoulder width, cannot be altered. A person’s particular characteristics, such as genetics, might also limit the efficacy of a hormone therapy in ways that cannot be fixed by changing the dosage.
References
Flentje, A., Leon, A., Carrico, A., Zheng, D., & Dilley, J. (2016). Mental and physical health among homeless sexual and gender minorities in a major urban US city. Journal of Urban Health, 93(6), 997–1009. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-016-0084-3
Fraser, B., Pierse, N., Chisholm, E., & Cook, H. (2019). LGBTIQ+ Homelessness: A review of the literature. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(15), 2677. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152677
Nahata, L., Chelvakumar, G., & Leibowitz, S. (2017). Gender-affirming pharmacological interventions for youth with gender dysphoria: When treatment guidelines are not enough. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 51(11), 1023–1032. https://doi.org/10.1177/1060028017718845
Rhoades, H., Rusow, J. A., Bond, D., Lanteigne, A., Fulginiti, A., & Goldbach, J. T. (2018). Homelessness, mental health and suicidality among LGBTQ youth accessing crisis services. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 49(4), 643–651. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-018-0780-1
NOTE: Please the writer should paraphrase and expand this paper to 5 pages.
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