Final published version
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘It feels meaningful’
T2 - How informal mental health caregivers in an LGBTQ community interpret their work and their role
AU - Worrell, Shane
AU - Waling, Andrea
AU - Anderson, Joel
AU - Lyons, Anthony
AU - Pepping, Christopher A.
AU - Bourne, Adam
PY - 2024/6/2
Y1 - 2024/6/2
N2 - Many members of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, and queer (LGBTQ) communities provide informal mental health support to peers. This type of support is valuable for people who receive it – even helping to prevent suicide. It is also meaningful to those who provide it. In this article, we focus on how LGBTQ people derive meaning from their experiences of supporting peers. In-depth interviews with 25 LGBTQ people in Melbourne, Australia, indicate that those providing informal mental health support to fellow community members recognise their roles as meaningful in three main ways: in terms of self, relationships and communities. Recognising the meanings that LGBTQ caregivers derive from helping fellow community members provides useful information service providers and policymakers seeking to better address mental distress in LGBTQ communities and support caregivers. It is useful to understand this meaningful work in an LGBTQ context as caregiving that challenges gendered and heteronormative assumptions about what care is, and who provides it.
AB - Many members of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, and queer (LGBTQ) communities provide informal mental health support to peers. This type of support is valuable for people who receive it – even helping to prevent suicide. It is also meaningful to those who provide it. In this article, we focus on how LGBTQ people derive meaning from their experiences of supporting peers. In-depth interviews with 25 LGBTQ people in Melbourne, Australia, indicate that those providing informal mental health support to fellow community members recognise their roles as meaningful in three main ways: in terms of self, relationships and communities. Recognising the meanings that LGBTQ caregivers derive from helping fellow community members provides useful information service providers and policymakers seeking to better address mental distress in LGBTQ communities and support caregivers. It is useful to understand this meaningful work in an LGBTQ context as caregiving that challenges gendered and heteronormative assumptions about what care is, and who provides it.
U2 - 10.1080/13691058.2023.2256833
DO - 10.1080/13691058.2023.2256833
M3 - Journal article
VL - 26
SP - 808
EP - 823
JO - Culture, Health & Sexuality
JF - Culture, Health & Sexuality
IS - 6
ER -