LGBT Youth Scotland has launched a new mental health campaign and has called for improvements to services to mark International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.

The ‘Mind Our Health’ campaign revealed LGBT young people have a higher risk of experiencing mental health problems, and wants health professionals to take action.

The campaign, designed and developed by LGBT Youth Scotland’s youth commission on mental health, aims to increase understanding of LGBT young people’s mental health experiences and raise awareness of mental health rights.

Cara Spence, senior programmes and influencing manager stated: “There is a significant body of evidence that shows LGBT young people are more likely than their peers to experience poor mental health, including anxiety, self-harm, and suicidal ideation.”

LGBT Youth Scotland’s research shows that 40 per cent of LGBT young people consider themselves to have mental health problems. Transgender young people and bisexual women were most likely to be affected with 67 per cent of transgender respondents and 63 per cent of bisexual women reporting that they have poor mental health.

“It’s clear that more needs to be done to reduce the likelihood of LGBT young people experiencing poor mental health and to ensure that mental health professionals and services are equipped to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people,” added Spence.

The youth commission found that LGBT young people are most likely to experience poor mental health as a result of experiencing prejudice or discrimination.

In particular they noted bullying at school and pressure to conform to gender norms as key causes of poor mental health amongst LGBT young people.

One young person involved in the mental health youth commission said: “I am recovering from depression and anxiety. I had panic attacks mainly because of bad bullying in school.”