As multiple studies demonstrate, LGBTQ youth are at significantly increased risk for mental health, substance use, economic, and social problems.

The Committee on Psychiatry and Religion of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) has developed a new set of resources for families and congregations to compassionately approach the needs of LGBTQ youth in faith communities. The toolkit is meant to accompany the committee’s previously published booklet, Faith Communities and the Well-Being of LGBTQ Youth. Both the toolkit and booklet are available for free download here. The toolkit and booklet offer specific actions individuals and faith communities may take towards lowering the risks.

What are the risks? Compared to non-LGBTQ peers, these youth are:

A decade ago, the problem of suicides among LGBTQ youth was on the minds of several Catholic bishops. One of them wanted to know whether there were any professional documents that could help him and his colleagues better understand this phenomenon and how they might address it.

At the time, no such documents seemed to exist. Consequently, the Psychiatry and Religion Committee and the LGBTQ Committee of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) began to discuss the idea. This led them to the work of Caitlin Ryan, Ph.D., and the Family Acceptance Project (FAP) at San Francisco State University.

Ryan and her colleagues have been studying these concerns for more than two decades and have developed multiple publications and resources. The good news is that research demonstrates ways to mitigate the risks of poor outcomes among sexual minority youth by increasing accepting behaviors and decreasing rejecting behaviors within families and, by extension,........

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