Behavioral Healthcare Resources
This page features behavioral health resources focused on serving LGBTQ+ people across the lifespan and their families. If you do not find the information or tools you are looking for, we encourage you to search our full document library or submit a Technical Assistance (TA) request for direct, tailored support.
NEW Resources!
This new tool provides clear, evidence-based information to help families, providers, and policymakers understand what affirming care looks like for kids. Grounded in guidance from leading medical and psychological organizations, this resource addresses common misconceptions and highlights best practices, from social affirmation in childhood to careful, age-appropriate medical steps during adolescence. It emphasizes that affirming care is individualized, developmentally appropriate, and proven to support the health and well-being of gender-diverse children. This factsheet is designed to foster informed, compassionate, and evidence-based conversations.
The Inclusivity & Affirmation Assessment Tool helps organizations evaluate how well they support and affirm LGBTQ+ individuals across policies, programs, and practices. Covering areas such as services, staff training, representation, online presence, and physical spaces, the tool provides a clear scoring system to identify strengths and areas for growth. Designed for behavioral health providers and community-based organizations, it offers a practical roadmap to becoming more inclusive and affirming. Paired with resources from the National SOGIE Center, it equips organizations with the guidance needed to take meaningful next steps.
When members of the LGBTQ+ community seek crisis support, safety, consent, and affirmation are essential. This reference sheet is a curated guide to crisis hotlines that do not contact emergency services without the caller’s consent, providing a more respectful and empowering support experience.
This resource highlights national crisis lines that prioritize confidentiality, cultural competence, and peer support for LGBTQ+, BIPOC, neurodivergent, and other marginalized individuals. It includes information on hours of availability, the focus of each line, and the communities they serve.
Over the past few decades, communities nationwide have worked to reduce risk factors and strengthen protective factors that help prevent system involvement among youth. These factors fall into four domains: individual, family, school/community, and peers. For LGBTQ+ youth, anti-LGBTQ+ environments can undermine protective factors and heighten risks, contributing to disproportionate system involvement. Addressing these disparities requires meaningful action from families, educators, and policymakers to foster supportive environments and improve outcomes.
This comprehensive guide offers behavioral health professionals evidence-based, trauma-informed strategies to support children and youth with intersex variations, as well as their families. Developed by leading experts and grounded in lived experiences, the guide addresses medical stigma, promotes respectful language practices, and outlines affirming care models that center dignity, consent, and family acceptance. Topics include best practices for communication, creating inclusive environments, navigating legal protections, and mitigating the long-term impacts of medically unnecessary interventions. The guide also highlights real stories, peer support resources, and concrete steps for organizations to provide equitable, culturally competent care.
Additional Resources
As behavioral health professionals providing care to people experiencing anti-LGBTQ+ bias, racism, and other forms of discrimination and injustice, it is extremely important to develop self-care and stress management plans to safeguard your own mental health and wellbeing. Our clients need us to be refreshed and restored if we are going to be agents of therapeutic care and effectiveness. Self-care is not selfish! In fact, it is essential to prevent burnout.
Often grouped in with the rest of the LGBTQ+ community, bi+ individuals face unique stressors and disparities related to their identity stemming from bi+ erasure, monosexism, and binegativity. Learn more about the unique needs of the bi+ community, as well as several practical tips for how to be bi+ affirming in our new Bi+ Mental Health Infographic!
In recognition of Bisexual Visibility Day, which is celebrated each year on September 23, the National SOGIE Center has compiled a list of resources for professionals to use to better support the unique needs of bisexual people. Please share this list with your colleagues.
Black LGBTQ+ people experience high rates of discrimination and stigma due to having more than one marginalized identity, including their racial identity and their sexual orientation/gender identity. Based on cutting edge research on intersectional experiences of Black LGBTQ+ people, the National SOGIE Center and the African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence have collaborated to create this new infographic on mental health impacts of these experiences, including tips for how behavioral health providers can support Black LGBTQ+ individuals.
Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people do not always feel comfortable disclosing their gender identity information or transgender status in medical contexts, often due to fear of discrimination and lack of knowledgeable providers. Maintaining confidentiality is an important aspect of quality care for all. Unfortunately, due to state and other local policies, TGD people seeking and receiving gender-affirming care face confidentiality concerns such as disclosure of names and pronouns to people who may put them at risk of physical or emotional harm. Providers should always ask TGD people for consent to share and document their TGD identity or status (e.g., in electronic medical records [EMR]), and should ask about context-specific name and pronoun use.
Individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ are at increased risk for eating disorders due to a variety of circumstances. It is important to understand the risk factors, what to look for, and protective factors when caring for this population. Download this infographic, created in partnership with the National Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders, to learn more.
This resource guide contains information on important programs and services that can aid in the prevention, intervention, and postvention of suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ+) populations. The few programs and services available and tailored to LGBTQ+ populations have varied levels of outcome data available. Users of this guide should also be aware that even though there are a number of programs and services listed in this guide, their availability across the country varies.
Holidays can be challenging times for LGBTQ+ folk. It is a time when families traditionally get together and engage in family and religious rituals. For LGBTQ+ folk whose families are not affirming, it may mean making a choice between being with your family of origin, being with a family of choice, or celebrating alone. This checklist contains some tips to navigate the holidays from some of our LGBTQ+ experts.
As someone who likely provides behavioral health services to LGBTQ+ people, even if you are unaware of your clients’ identities, it is important you know how to demonstrate that you are an affirming provider. As a result of minority stress, navigating anti-LGBTQ+ climates, and being more likely to experience discrimination, LGBTQ+ people have increased risks to suicide, depression, anxiety, and several other negative health and life outcomes. By actively demonstrating that you are an affirming provider, you could be opening the door to vital discussions about your client’s identities, strengths, hardships, family life, stressors, and other important areas of life. To treat each person with dignity and the best care possible, we must make space for them to be their authentic selves, to be vulnerable, and to be able to seek support without the fear of discrimination.
The National SOGIE Center has created this language guidance related to sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression (SOGIE) as a resource for behavioral health practitioners to better understand the most recent language used in LGBTQ+ communities. This list is not exhaustive, and we encourage professionals to gain a broader foundation on this knowledge by watching foundational or seeking out available glossaries. It should be noted that people use language in different ways, and the best practice is always to honor language an individual uses to identify themselves.
SAMHSA’s principles of trauma-informed care guide practitioners to create safety, trust, transparency, collaboration, and empowerment in helping relationships, and to ensure that services have cultural and gender relevance.
LGBTQ+ adolescents are at heightened risk for many behavioral health outcomes, including misuse of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATOD). Decades of research suggests that these experiences are tied to discrimination, known as “minority stress” 1. Recent research has identified a number of key life experiences that drive ATOD use among LGBTQ+ youth. The below table represents a variety of common stressors and conversation starters which can open the door to an evidence-based approach to intervention.
The Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) model has been shown to be an effective approach for the identification and intervention for hazardous substance use, misuse, and substance use disorders (SUD) and for reducing the potential for psychosocial and/or health problems (Babor et al., 2007). However, application of the model for use among transgender and nonbinary (TNB) populations has yet to be fully understood and requires additional research. Our goal is to provide practice guidance for the utilization of the SBIRT model with TNB populations.
This glossary of terms related to sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression (SOGIE) is a resource for behavioral health practitioners to better understand language commonly used in LGBTQ+ communities. It should be noted that people use terms in different ways, and the best practice is always to honor language an individual uses to identify themselves.
As mental health providers, you may talk to family members in distress, or who describe family conflict related to their loved one’s LGBTQ+ identity. It is important that you know how to effectively support families through these challenging discussions. The goal should be to meet family members “where they are” with their own experiences, worries, and questions while simultaneously modeling an affirmative stance toward LGBTQ+ identities. It is imperative that we provide non-judgmental spaces for families to seek support while also offering them resources that will improve their abilities to affirm their LGBTQ+ family member.
All behavioral health care organizations provide services to LGBTQ+ people and their families, regardless of the organization’s size, location, or type of service provided. Therefore, it is imperative for organizational leadership to put policies and practices in place that affirm LGBTQ+ people. This tip sheet outlines actions leaders can take to support their workforce in being more welcoming and inclusive.
While gender dysphoria among transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people is a widely researched and documented experience, the same cannot be said for gender euphoria. This tip sheet, based on a recent qualitative study by Austin, Papciak, and Lovins (2022), defines gender euphoria, provides real-life examples from participants, and outlines how behavioral health practitioners can help their TNB clients experience affirmation, confidence, and joy around their gender identity.
Holidays, weddings, funerals and other family gatherings can be challenging times for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer or Questioning (LGBTQ+) clients. It is a time when your clients may traditionally get together and engage in family and religious rituals. For LGBTQ+ people whose families are not affirming, it may mean making a choice between being with their family of origin, being with a family of choice (friends and loved ones), or being alone.