Conference focuses on LGBT suicides
Lesbian, gay and bisexual young people are almost five times as likely to have tried to kill themselves compared to heterosexual youth
Lesbian, gay and bisexual young people are almost five times as likely to have tried to kill themselves compared to heterosexual youth, sobering information for those attending a LGBT suicide prevention conference Friday in San Jose.
Not only that, but four out of every 10 transgender adults say they have attempted suicide, according to National Center for Transgender Equality.
Those statistics were some of the reasons for the South Bay’s first American Suicide Prevention Foundation LGBT suicide prevention conference Friday in San Jose Marriott. In the wake of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain killing themselves and a CDC report that U.S. suicides went up more than 30 percent in half of states since 1999, the topic was especially timely.
Gina Cecconi, 48, with National Alliance on Mental Illness Santa Clara County, said she came to share stories, provide resources and help others. Cecconi is a survivor of two suicide attempts and her daughter, now 26, was 14 when she attempted suicide, shortly after coming out as gay.
“Finding out my daughter also had a mental illness and then discovering that she wanted to come out — it was hard for her for a while,” Cecconi said. “A few family members weren’t as accepting as they should have been. Until they were educated and more understanding, it kind of tore our family apart of a while.”
Today, Cecconi saidher family is doing well and she credits education and support. But what
Cecconi’s daughter experienced is not uncommon. Jeremy Goldbach, a social work professor at the University of Southern California, shared a national study he led from 2014 to 2016 where almost half of the 700 LGBT youth participants indicated they expect people will reject them if their sexual and or gender identities became public knowledge.
Goldbach said national estimates show more than 10 percent of young people identify as something other than heterosexual. In California, 27 percent of youth ages 12 to 17 report they are viewed by others as gender nonconforming — people who don’t fit traditional gender stereotypes — at school, according to the UCLA Williams Institute.
About 150 other professionals attended the conference’s presentations and sessions on LGBT mental health research, risk factors in the LGBT community and suicide prevention strategies for local South Bay communities. Marissa Eusebio, a clinical psychology PhD student at Palo
Alto University, said she attended partly to make connections and is interested in studying how LGBT suicide is underreported. Worldwide, sexual orientation and gender identity are not standard elements noted on death certificates.
“This type of particular research is up against so many battles because there’s political issues and all kinds of different red tape that can really complicate it, but it is really important work,” Eusebio said.
One breakout session gave an overview of findings from the Multicultural Suicide Research Center at Palo Alto University and how the County of Santa Clara Suicide Prevention Program is applying them at a clinical and public health prevention level.
Mego Lien, the manager of Suicide Prevention, said the program considers more than race and ethnicity to work with populations in a culturally competent or mindful way.
“We look at age, religion, and also gender and sexual identity,” Lien said.
Lien added culture causes differences in contributing factors, as well as how suicide is expressed, assessed, and treated among different groups.
LGBTQ populations also experience challenges as they age, as explained in a session by the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Community Center and LGBT Wellness, a program funded by the county and connected to the non-profit Caminar. In a national AARP survey, 76 percent of LGBT adults 45 and older were concerned about having adequate family and or social support to rely on as they age. Likewise, to access suitable housing as they age, 34 percent were concerned they will have to hide their identity.
Santa Clara County’s Behavioral Health Services and the Office of LGBTQ Affairs also sponsored the American Suicide Prevention Foundation’s Stronger Communities: LGBTQ+ Suicide Prevention conference, which has been held across the nation since 2013.
Upcoming LGBT mental health-related services in the county include the transgender health clinic on the second floor of San Jose’s Valley Health Center Downtown expected to be completed in the fall.
Santa Clara County’s Crisis Hotline can be reached anonymously and confidentially at 1-855-278-4204 24 hours a day.