Beyondblue anger grows

Beyondblue anger grows

A petition will seek to force beyondblue to comprehensively address mental health issues in the gay and lesbian community.

Community anger over the national depression initiative’s lack of GLBTI issues in its draft Clinical Practice Guidelines on Depression in Adolescents and Young Adults is growing as activists look for ways for the public to express its disappointment.

The petition, organised by John Mitchell, brother of gay rights advocate Rob Mitchell who’s decried the guidelines, gives the GLBTI community a platform to air its frustrations.

“I think to not have [GLBTI youth] in the guidelines as an ‘at risk’ group is unacceptable,” Mitchell said.

“I know quite a few people who know people who’ve committed suicide and they’re all gay.”

Mitchell said he has received many personal messages with the petition including one from a bisexual woman who said early intervention may have saved her from years of depression.

The petition already has 170 signatures and will be sent to beyondblue.

LGBT Health Alliance director Gabi Rosenstreich said the draft guidelines had “fallen well short” and the alliance would make a formal submission for more inclusion.

“We’re very disappointed,” she said. “There’s plenty of evidence of specific issues on sexuality, sex and gender diversity, and indeed beyondblue have themselves done a review of that research.”

Rosenstreich revealed discussion on GLBTI mental health issues was still occurring, “very slowly”, after a December roundtable with beyondblue and community activists.

“Beyondblue need to be able to consult effectively with the LGBT sector when they’re actually developing guidelines,” she said.

“They’re consulting now, but it would have been helpful if that consultation could have happened at an earlier stage so the community sector’s input [could] actually go in and be taken into account.”

Only one study relating to gay and lesbian depression was included out of a reported 57,000 studies used to develop the guidelines.

The beyondblue guidelines are open for public submissions until May 12.

info: The petition deadline is April 29. Visit www.gopetition.com/online/35422.html

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6 responses to “Beyondblue anger grows”

  1. Charlotte and Jess – They are a political group that is a Think Tank on Depression. They are not run by the government at all but are independent and have their own board and structure like The Australia Insitute and other Political Think Tanks. Jeff Kenett is Chair of that Board. He is a former Premier of Victoria who has been taken to court for vilification of our community. The case was dropped due to funds. He is on the public record having said some terrible things about our community.

    As I have said the funding is from government grants and corporate sponsors. It is not an Academic or clinical group.

    Beyond Blue has said their is not enough studies on our community in the defense of excluding us from guidelines. This went against the findings of Lynne Hillier, from La Trobe University’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society. She told The Sunday Age that failing to tackle the unique needs of a group at such high risk was ”incredibly neglectful”. Lynne had done research on our community for Beyond Blue. She was clearly not happy with the defense of Beyond Blue and chose her words very carefully. She is an Academic!

    For example In 2008, the organisation commissioned research that found that up to 31 per cent of gay people suffered from anxiety and depression compared with between 4 and 14 per cent of heterosexuals. It also found that 17 per cent of young lesbians had tried to harm or kill themselves, compared with just 2 per cent of young straight women.

    It is neglectful to ignore the research. Jeff Kennett used to run his marketing agency in Melbourne. I can see Beyond Blue has a very polished image, but I also see it has many conficts of interest to be taken seriously by the medical community.

  2. I agree Beyondblue has shown much disgrace in ignoring our community however saying they are a political group is speculation and I am fairly certain they are Government funded??

  3. I have posted the link to my Facebook page, and a depression group I am also part of, I hope this will help to raise more signatures.

  4. In what sense is Beyond Blue a political group?

    I went to the website and it appears that a comprehensive study is under-way on GLBTI issues. Perhaps this is why it is not comprehensively covered? Because they’re waiting for results of a comprehensive study to clear of conflicting results from earlier studies?

  5. the real point is that mainstream str8 movers n shakers see gays as irrelevant and a waste of space!

  6. Beyond Blue is a Right Wing Political Group. It is not a clinical group. This is a very important distinction as it explains the reasons we are not represented in publications by Beyond Blue.

    There have been thousands of studies on us, and peer reviewed studies in good journals. But as Beyond Blue is a political group, it does not have to follow science and is seeking a political agenda that we are not part of.

    Beyond Blue has no credibility with most clinicians due to being a political group. It has corporate masters and political masters. It seeks to hide the reality of depression in our community for political purposes. Look at the Chairman of the Board Jeff Kennett and how he has acted in his life. The way Beyond Blue acts towards us is not that different.

    Although a petition is one line of attack, the only way to get Beyondblue to represent the studies on our community in publications is to attack their political masters, and the companies who fund them in what is a conflict of interest. Almost all companies are scared of our community assaulting there brands. And Rainbow Labor needs to be involved in an attack to the political funders. Not speaking about depression for political purposes is disgusting, and I think when this is pointed out most people will be outraged.