Article Sidebar
Published:
Oct 12, 2021Keywords:
Article Details
The author(s) retain copyright on work published by AOSIS unless specified otherwise.
Licensing and publication rights
Author(s) of work published by AOSIS are required to grant AOSIS the unlimited rights to publish the definitive work in any format, language and medium, for any lawful purpose. AOSIS requires journal authors to publish their work in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the published article(s), provided attribution is given to the applicable journal with details of the original publication, as set out in the official citation of the article published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the article on the authors’ or their institution’s websites or in institutional repositories.
Previously published work may have been published under a different licence. We advise the community that if they would like to reuse the work to consult the applicable licence at article level.
Note: If you need to comply with your funding body policy, you can apply for the CC BY license after your manuscript is accepted for publication.
Main Article Content
Mental health challenges of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people: An integrated literature review
Miriam M. Moagi
Anna E. van Der Wath
Priscilla M. Jiyane
Richard S. Rikhotso
Abstract
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals are often stigmatised and discriminated against. This population is expected to experience poorer mental health outcomes compared with heterosexual and cis-gendered people, a phenomenon healthcare providers need to take note of and act upon. This study aimed to explore and describe the mental health challenges of LGBT people. An integrative literature search was conducted. The following electronic databases were searched: Academic Search Premier, Africa-Wide Information, Business Source Premier, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), E-Journals, ERIC, Family & Society Studies Worldwide, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, Humanities Source, MasterFILE Premier, MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, Social Work Abstracts, TOC Premier, WorldCat.org, Taylor and Francis Journals, Biomed Central and Wiley Online Library. An internet search was also carried out using Google and Google Scholar databases. The following search terms were identified: ‘LGBT’ OR ‘LGBT community’ AND ‘mental health challenges/problems’ OR ‘mental/psychiatric illness’. The reviewed literature comprised research conducted globally between 2010 and 2019. From the 2545 titles, 345 abstracts were examined, resulting in 57 articles. The 57 full-text articles were examined to verify whether they addressed the scope of the literature review, of them, 21 addressed the mental health challenges of LGBT people. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people experience the following mental health challenges: emotional distress, stigmatisation, victimisation, discrimination and barriers to accessing healthcare services. The results showed that although LGBT has been legalised in many countries, LGBT communities still experience significant mental health challenges. Healthcare providers are in a position to address challenges related to social and healthcare structures and act as advocates in order to promote the mental health of LGBT individuals.
