LGBTQ+ people – particularly trans and gender diverse people – continue to face disproportionately high rates of suicidality, shaped by intersecting experiences of marginalisation, discrimination and trauma. In response, community-led and population-specific services have emerged as crucial supports, providing culturally competent, peer-led support grounded in lived experience.
This presentation explores the critical need for LGBTQ+ specific and community-led suicide prevention services, drawing on ACON’s suicide prevention services in NSW. ACON currently delivers a suite of suicide prevention services for LGBTQ+ people, including an aftercare service, trans mental health and wellbeing service, a digital suicide prevention resource and workshops for trans and gender diverse people and people bereaved by suicide. They have been on a journey to align with best practice in aftercare, while retaining the integrity of trans service and community led design and delivery.
Drawing on early findings from an external evaluation, this presentation will highlight the factors that both enable and hinder the success of LGBTQ+ community-led and population-specific suicide prevention services. It will also provide insights for the mainstream sector in providing culturally competent, accessible, culturally appropriate support that actively addresses the systemic harms caused by biomedical, cisgender and heteronormative health systems. Specifically, supporting LGBTQ+ people experiencing suicidality must go beyond inclusive language and visibility. It requires systemic commitment to partnering with community-led services, investing in peer workforces, embedding LGBTQ+ lived experience in governance and design, and shifting power toward the communities most affected.
In line with the theme United Voices, Brighter Futures, this presentation will highlight the power of peer connection and community leadership in suicide prevention. It calls for a sector-wide approach that not only includes LGBTQ+ voices, but centres them. When LGBTQ+ communities are resourced to lead, they don’t just improve service access, they build pathways to hope, healing, and futures worth living.