UM receives $3.75 million to study LGBTQ health issues

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The University of Maryland Prevention Research Center will study mental health and health care for LGBTQ people as part of a national research effort funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers at the university hope the center’s studies can help support a population that is more likely to deal with mental health issues than the general public because of stigma, especially among younger people.

“The University of Maryland is a recognized leader in supporting LGBTQ health and well-being,” Brad Boekeloo, director of the research center, said in a statement. “In addition to our expertise in the School of Public Health, we have resources across the UMD campus … to support us in our mission to address LGBTQ+ mental health disparities. … We’re all working together to serve and lift up the most vulnerable LGBTQ people.”

The university’s Prevention Research Center, affiliated with the School of Public Health, was awarded $3.75 million over five years. It was one of 25 prevention research centers to receive funding from the CDC.

Over its first 10 years, the Prevention Research Center focused on HIV prevention plans and intervention programs in Maryland and Washington. The new LGBTQ focus is an expansion of that mission, the university said.

One priority under the new funding award will be the implementation and evaluation of training to help mental health care providers work with LGBTQ patients.

LGBTQ people are more likely than the general public to struggle with mental health and substance abuse problems, according to the Human Rights Campaign. 

The group’s 2016-17 survey found that 28% of LGBTQ youth and 40% of transgender youth felt depressed most or all of the time during the previous 30 days. Twelve percent of non-LGBTQ youth reported similar levels of depression.

The driver of these issues is often stigma, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

“I’ve heard the need from clinicians of how they can better support their LGB and transgender clients and patients,” Sean Lare, a social worker who helped develop the training, said in a statement. “My work with the (Prevention Research Center) offers a unique opportunity to develop that training program piece that will increase that capacity for individual providers in their one-on-one work with people, but also to influence the culture of the agency or organization they are working within.”

The center will evaluate that training by simulating clinic sessions with actors. 

The center also thinks its research could help with a number of hot topics in LGBTQ health under discussion in think tanks and state legislatures across the country, including health plans inclusive of LGBTQ needs, bans on conversion therapy, LGBTQ youth and parents in child welfare systems and gender-inclusive facilities.

“The LGBTQ community faces significant barriers to health equity, ranging from policies and practices that exclude rights and protections, to everyday experiences that are related to discrimination, stigma and violence,” Jessica Fish, a research center researcher, said in a statement. “The Prevention Research Center is dedicated to trying to elevate awareness, knowledge and competent training for mental health care providers so that it can be a pathway to wellness for this population.”