The experiences of LGBTQI+ residents when accessing Islington services including health, care and housing

The All Age Mental Health Partnership Board had identified a gap in knowledge around the experiences of LGBTQI+ residents accessing mental health support. As such the Integrated Care Board asked Healthwatch Islington to seek out these experiences in our Community Research and Support project 2022/23. Healthwatch approached Islington Mind as a local organisation providing mental health support and offering a specific service for LGBTQI+ residents, Outcome. Mind and Healthwatch have worked closer together co-chairing the All Age Mental Health Partnership Board’s Inequalities Workstream where the data gap had been identified. They spoke to 22 people. 

From initial conversations with clients Mind noted that residents didn’t just want to talk about their experiences of accessing mental health services but of accessing all services that can impact their wellbeing including physical health, mental health, social care and housing. Healthwatch Islington has a role in influencing health and social care provision but not housing. However, we agreed with clients to include housing in the hope of raising any concerns at the Fairer Together Partnership Board and Community Partnership Board, both of which cover all aspects of life in Islington.

Key themes from the interviews included:

• Visibility can be important in making residents feel welcome across services.
• Wider societal discrimination impacts on residents’ confidence to be open with healthcare, social care and housing colleagues.
• The way we access many public services (particularly primary health care) has changed, but the changes need to be more clearly communicated to patients and may need to be adapted to improve accessibility. This is reiterated in other Healthwatch work.
• The report goes onto look at what participants said about individual services, including housing.