From the National LGBTQ Task Force

Data on our community is essential to our efforts to advocate for change. Yet there is very little data currently on trans people’s experiences with mental health care. That’s why we’ve partnered with Trans Lifeline in distributing the first-ever national survey focused on mental health and the transgender/gender non-conforming community.

Suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety and other poor mental health outcomes are very common for trans people because of social stigma and marginalization. In the 2015 US Trans Survey, conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality, 39% of respondents had recently experienced intense psychological distress, and 40% had attempted suicide in their lifetime.

Our survey will build on this data to help pinpoint how and why trans people experience these mental health outcomes. This knowledge is essential for our policy and lobbying work around mental health and disability

At the Task Force, we believe advocacy for trans people with mental health disabilities must follow the philosophy of “nothing about us without us”, which means that any such advocacy must be led by trans people who have mental health disabilities.

We know from the US Trans Survey found that 33% of trans people have had negative experiences with healthcare providers—but we don’t have specific data on their experiences with mental health care providers. The Trans Mental Health Survey will help provide additional evidence of discrimination faced by the trans community in specifically mental health settings.