Many people in the LGBTQ+ community face unique behavioral health challenges. Younger LGBTQ+ people, in particular, often report more significant struggles than adult LGBTQ+ people, partly due to discrimination in their formative years. It’s an area where Acadia Healthcare has developed specialized programs that serve the unique needs of the LGBTQ+ community.
One study found that LGBTQ+ people use behavioral health services at a rate that’s 2.5 times higher than heterosexual people. And discrimination is an unfortunate reality for many, with another survey finding that 86% of LGBTQ+ youth report having been harassed or assaulted at school.
Acadia Healthcare designed programs that seek to help those in the LGBTQ+ community with mental health, behavioral, and addiction struggles.
“At Acadia Healthcare, we don’t believe that anyone should be denied care based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” Acadia Healthcare writes on its website. “All treatment facilities within the Acadia Healthcare network welcome people regardless of how they identify. People who identify as LGBTQ+ will find a safe and inclusive environment at any of Acadia Healthcare’s treatment facilities to heal from the mental health, behavioral health, and addiction challenges they might be experiencing.”
Creating a Safe Space for the LGBTQ+ Community
All Acadia Healthcare facilities seek to create a supportive space where people of all sexual orientations and gender identities feel safe and understood. Acadia Healthcare serves about 75,000 patients every day in a variety of treatment settings, including inpatient psychiatric hospitals, residential treatment centers, outpatient clinics, and specialty treatment facilities.
The company’s investment in the quality of its services recently received recognition from Newsweek, which named seven Acadia Healthcare facilities to its list of America’s Best Addiction Treatment Centers 2024.
Some treatment facilities in the Acadia Healthcare network specialize in care for specific populations within the LGBTQ+ community. This LGBTQ+ programming spans a range of services. Specialized staff undergo rigorous training in LGBTQ+ best practices, including transgender-affirming policies that ensure each patient is respected and accommodated according to their preferences.
For example, The Refuge: A Healing Place, is part of the Acadia Healthcare network and is a nationally recognized program that treats addiction, eating disorders, certain behavioral health disorders, and patients with dual diagnosis. About 5% to 10% of its patients identify as LGBTQ+. Among its other services, The Refuge provides process groups specific to the LGBTQ+ population as well as peer-led groups that meet in the evening.
“Whatever views people have, we treat our clients with the dignity and respect they deserve,” said Peter Pennington, chief executive officer of The Refuge, in a discussion about LGBTQ+ services among leaders at Acadia Healthcare facilities. He added that this begins with “making clients feel comfortable, either with safe space stickers that you put on doors or anything in the office, like a rainbow flag, just to let people know that it’s a safe space for you to be you.
“That’s very important: Simply establishing that therapeutic bond and allowing the client to begin to feel like they can enter into this space of, ‘OK, now we can talk about the stuff that’s bothering me.’”
Some of the Risk Factors That Impact the LGBTQ+ Community
LGBTQ+ individuals face unique behavioral health risk factors that contribute to increased mental health challenges, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Key risk factors include societal stigma, discrimination, and rejection, which can lead to feelings of isolation, identity-based trauma, and even homelessness.
Additionally, NAMI reports that experiences such as family rejection, harassment, and exclusion further heighten the risk of behavioral health challenges and substance use disorders. LGBTQ+ youth are particularly vulnerable to mental health and behavioral health struggles, often facing higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.
Acadia Healthcare notes that LGBTQ+ people “often experience extreme fear or anxiety” when they come out to friends, family, and their community. Some face not only discrimination, but violence. Others, fearing discrimination, may hide their sexual orientation or gender identity in some situations, including the workplace.
In cases where LGBTQ+ patients may require additional care related to specific community needs, Acadia Healthcare provides specialized treatment programs within its network that connect patients with highly specialized care within a like-minded community.
Acadia Healthcare and Its Purpose To Lead Care With Light
In the discussion among leaders at Acadia Healthcare facilities about LGBTQ+ services, Rachel Legend, a division president who oversaw 11 facilities across seven states at the time of the interview, said she was working with clinical and nursing staff at her facilities on a transgender-affirming policy, process, and training.
“This will allow us to have standard processes and protocols for how we welcome and place trans patients into our facilities, provide best practice quality care for LGBTQ+ patients, and build even stronger relationships with our referral partners,” Legend said. “When we focus on listening to the patient in front of us, affirming their identity and ensuring their safety, we affirm Acadia’s purpose to Lead Care With Light.”
Mark Palmenter, chief marketing officer on Acadia Healthcare’s Executive Leadership team, said providing services for the LGBTQ+ community works when it involves listening as well as allowing people to be their authentic selves and share experiences.
“Importantly, all of us can do that — we don’t need to be a leader in the nominal sense, but that is what leaders do,” he said. “They introduce new ideas, bring people together, and drive change. That’s what I would offer in terms of what each of us can do at Acadia and beyond.”
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