Suicide Prevention among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: Expanding the Frame and Broadening Our Approaches
This webinar will focus on reducing risk for suicide and increasing positive outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth.
Event Presenter(s)
Effie Malley, MPA is Director of the National Center for the Prevention of Youth Suicide at the American Association of Suicidology. She previously worked at the national Suicide Prevention Resource Center where she co-authored a white paper (Suicide Risk and Prevention for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth) and served as lead developer of a workshop kit for staff in schools, youth-serving organizations, and suicide prevention programs (Suicide Prevention among LGBT Youth: A Workshop for Professionals Who Serve Youth). She will briefly describe these resources and the practice implications of modifiable risk and protective factors.
Caitlin Ryan, PhD, ACSW is Director of the Family Acceptance Project, the only community research, intervention, education and policy initiative that works to promote family acceptance and to decrease major health and related risks for LGBT youth, including suicide, in the context of their families. Dr. Ryan has worked on LGBT health and mental health issues for 35 years and focuses on promoting the well-being of LGBT children and youth in families, schools and communities. She will discuss research that she and her team have conducted over nearly a decade that has identified specific behaviors that families and caregivers use to express acceptance and rejection of their LGBT children’s identity and then established the relationship between these accepting and rejecting behaviors with depression, substance abuse, suicidal thoughts and attempts, and sexual health risks, as well as health and well-being in their LGBT children in young adulthood.
Dave Reynolds, MPH, CPH is Senior Public Policy and Research Manager at The Trevor Project, a national organization focused on crisis and suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. He will describe evidence-based practices related to media coverage of suicides and public health campaigns to prevent suicide. Using specific examples related to LGBTQ youth, he will explain how members of the media, suicide prevention professionals, and advocates can adhere to safe and effective messaging standards when communicating about suicide prevention and the LGBTQ community.