New Method Wellness

SPECIALIZED ADDICTION TREATMENT PROGRAM FOR LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY

Specialized addiction treatment programs for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender LGBTQ+ community have evolved over the years as an increasing number of individuals are revealing their sexual orientation and gender identity. Thanks to greater awareness and widespread access to information, LGBT individuals and their families have resources to learn more about each other, and informed practitioners are changing the way they approach substance abuse treatment with individual counseling, family education, and client-centered treatment plans.

The movement to remove stigma and discrimination related to LGBTQ+ populations has helped more individuals to come out and identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, but since federally funded surveys have only recently begun to include information about the sexual orientation and gender identification of survey participants, little is known about the long-term trends of substance abuse in LGBTQ populations. To date, the most recent data we have comes from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA). Results from the national survey show that sexual minorities are more likely to have a mental illness (AMI), a serious mental illness (SMI) and a major depressive episode (MDE) than their sexual majority counterparts.