Mental Health Awareness Week: Tackling Loneliness in the LGBTQ+ Community

Loneliness effects millions of people, with one in four adults feeling lonely some or all of the time, reveals recent research carried out by the Mental Health Foundation in the UK. LGBTQ+ people – young and old – however, are much more prone to loneliness, according to LGBTQ+ organizations such as Just Like Us and Stonewall.

Research from Stonewall found that LGBTQ+ people over 55 were more likely to be single, live alone, and have mental health issues than their straight counterparts. Stonewall’s studies have also found that LGBTQ+ young people who aren’t in education, training, or work often feel isolated from their peers due to a lack of acceptance, difficulty finding other LGBTQ+ peers, and/or separation due to the fact that they aren’t in education, training, or work. This isolation was found to “significantly impact their wellbeing and mental health.”

Research carried out by Just Like Us also found that young LGBTQ+ people are twice as likely to feel lonely and more than twice as likely to worry daily about their mental health than their non-LGBTQ+ peers. Additionally, over half (55%) of LGBTQ+ young people worry about their mental health daily, compared to just a quarter (26%) of non-LGBTQ+ young people.

Loneliness has been exacerbated by the pandemic, according to both Mental Health UK and Just Like Us. Coronavirus has particularly impacted the mental health of LGBTQ+ young people who are transgender, Black and/or have a disability. In fact, seven in 10 (68%) LGBTQ+ young people also say their mental health has worsened since the pandemic began, compared with half (49%) of non-LGBTQ+ young people. In addition, LGBTQ+ young people are twice as likely as their non-LGBTQ+ peers (52% vs 27%) to have felt lonely and separated from the people they are closest to on a daily basis during lockdown.

Additionally, other studies and anecdotal evidence have shown that loneliness is extremely common in the workplace and that it shows up as greater disengagement, which has a negative impact on productivity, creativity, and even job retention. This becomes even more critical as employees continue to deal with the impact of the pandemic on their well-being and mental health. How organizations approach mental health is increasingly important to the engagement and motivation of employees. In fact, in recent years there has been an uptick in the awareness of the importance of mental health at work.

For Mental Health Awareness Week this year, myGwork has organized an event to raise awareness of the mental health issues that LGBTQ+ people face on a daily basis in the workplace. Scheduled to take place tomorrow (11 May 2022) at 4pm BST, LGBTQ+ professionals will talk about their own experiences with mental health, along with practical steps and advice to improve the mental health of individuals and the LGBTQ+ community at work.

Speakers include Organon’s Klaus Goodwin, Emmersive Labs’ Nye Prior, Bricks Magazine’s Prishita Maheshwari-Aplin, GSK’s Sanchia Constance, FT’s Adam Winning and Physiotherapist and Psychologist Katarzyna Adamczyk.

Click here to sign up and register for free.