IN Community: Egale Canada Is Queering Mental Health Supports

Participate in a survey or focus group and help improve mental health supports for the LGBTQ2+ community…

By Jumol Royes
Photo: Keira Burton/Pexels

Navigating the health system to find specialized supports and services as an LGBTQ2+ person can be challenging during the best of times. Add mental health concerns to the mix and the situation can quickly become much more stressful.

Egale, Canada’s leading organization for LGBTQ2+ people and issues, wants to know how the pandemic has impacted queer folks and their mental health in the hopes of “queering mental health” and improving mental health supports for LGBTQ2+ people across Canada.

Participants can share their perspectives by taking a 25-minute national survey in either English or French, or by attending a 90-minute virtual focus group between May and July 2022. Survey participants will be entered for a chance to win one of 10 $200 gift cards from Visa, Mastercard, Indigo/Chapters, Winners/Home Sense, UberEats or Skip the Dishes. Focus group participants will each receive a $50 honorarium.

Egale is looking for participants who identify as Two Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or intersex, or are a mental health service provider. Additionally, participants must live in Canada and be 16 years of age or older.

The survey and focus groups are all part of a national research study and the multi-year Queering Mental Health Supports in Canada project focused on “identifying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various factors which influence mental health, learning about the strategies people are using to protect and maintain their mental health and well-being and determining how we can improve mental health services and supports for 2SLGBTQI people,” says Egale Canada’s executive director, Helen Kennedy.

To take the national survey or register to attend a focus group, visit: egale.ca/egale-in-action/mental-health-supports-research/.

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JUMOL ROYES is IN Magazine’s director of communications and community engagement, a GTA-based storyteller and glass-half-full kinda guy. He writes about compassion, community, identity and belonging. His guilty pleasure is watching the Real Housewives. Follow him on Twitter @Jumol and on Instagram @jumolroyes.