- Conference
- 2012 National LGBT Conference
- Date
- 17 July 2012
- Decision
- Carried
Gay men in Scotland are nearly eight times more likely to have attempted suicide in the last year and four times more likely to have taken drugs than heterosexual men, according to a survey by Stonewall Scotland from earlier this year. The survey of gay and bisexual men’s health found that 3% of gay men and 7% of bisexual men have attempted to take their own life in the past year, compared to 0.4 % of the general population.
Although the Stonewall Survey did not look at mental health and drug problems faced by lesbians or trans people, these stark figures evidence the need for drug treatment and mental health services to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) friendly and for staff to be trained on issues specific to LGBT people.
Conference encourages stewards and regional LGBT groups to utilise such surveys to defend and improve mental health and drug treatment services for LGBT people.