self-harm | Applied Psychology and Solution Focused Life Coaching with Dr Gary Wood

Out & About: Mapping LGBT Lives in Birmingham is a research project commissioned by Birmingham City Council to map the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans) community in the city. The data were collected over a five month period via an on-line survey by the charity Birmingham LGBT, and I analysed them. Essentially, the report aims to fill a gap in knowledge. Previously there were no data available to assess the needs of the LGBT community. The Equality Act 2010 has created the impetus to gather information to ensure equality of service provision.

The research comes at an exciting time for the city. Birmingham LGBT won a substantial grant from the Big Lottery Fund to establish an LGBT Health and Wellbeing Centre to act as a ‘one stop shop’ for the community and community groups, and will work with other service providers to address health inequalities within the LGBT Community.

Amongst the findings, Out and About indicated that one in five respondents had attempted suicide and more than one in five had self harmed. Both of these were more likely if the people had been victims of hate crimes. Cohort comparisons for experiences at school indicated that the younger cohort (under 35s) were more likely to have been ‘out’ at school than were the older cohort (35+) but also more likely to have been bullied. The general picture was of a paucity of information and resources at schools on sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as a lack of active strategies in schools to tackle homophobia. The report calls for improvements in education provision to tackle homophobia and awareness raising.

Out & About also offers recommendations for improving the LGBT cultural appeal of Birmingham. The first step is simply that Birmingham needs to take a leaf out of the book of its festival of queer culture (now in its third year) and promote itself more effectively and *Shout! about what the city has to offer.

Links:

Download a PDF copy of Out & About
For a hard copy of the report contact: Birmingham LGBT
*Shout, Birmingham’s Festival of Queer Culture
Equality Act, 2010

Self-help books thrive on repeat business. I knew this when I wrote mine, Don’t Wait For Your Ship To Come In. . . Swim Out To Meet It. When this review appeared on-line, I realized why.

This book is an average self-help book, as you do need to apply the advice within if you are to gain something.

Apparently, for some people the quality of a self-help book is inversely proportional to the amount of effort the reader has to put in to follow the advice.

I still stand by my claim, that properly applied, it does work and offers an end to ‘yo-yo self helping’. Therein lies the rub!