As a queer brown woman I didn't feel safe
Suranee reveals how her experience of being marginalised led to her co-founding Rainbow Mind to provide specialised LGBTQIA+ mental health support
As a young person, I didn't have any mental health support. In fact, I didn’t even know support like that existed. I was raised in a little village in the Lake District. I'm a queer woman of colour, so I have multiple intersecting identities. I couldn’t see anybody else who looked like me growing up, so I didn't feel safe to come out.
Experiences like this are part of why there’s a higher prevalence of mental health problems in the LGBTQIA+ community. Depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidal ideation can be the result of the many stresses we experience. For example, suppressing oneself, not feeling safe to be our authentic selves and many, many years of discrimination.
"In my previous workplaces, I was the only brown queer person in a leadership position. It was so lonely."
I went on to work in the private sector, but I had a difficult time. At one point, I was made redundant and I took a year off due to burnout. It was during that time that I started volunteering in the LGBTQIA+ mental health space.
In my previous workplaces, I was the only brown queer person in a leadership position. It was so lonely. I went from being completely alone to being surrounded by LGBTQIA+ colleagues with shared lived experience. In that, I found comfort and safety in the workplace for the first time. Being in a position where I could give other people like me that safety too, particularly young people, was such a full circle moment for me. But it took me 40 years to get there.
Seven years ago, we set up Rainbow Mind to provide specialised LGBTQIA+ mental health support and advocate for our community. It’s a partnership between Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest, and Mind in Salford, with a shared mission to tackle discrimination and mental health inequalities affecting LGBTQIA+ people.
As an LGBTQIA+ person, you might find you’re treated differently in healthcare settings. This is something that happens all the time. As a queer parent, it’s something I experience firsthand.
"Sometimes it feels like doctors are reeling off a heterosexual designed script, rather than looking at who is in front of them."
Whenever I fill out a health questionnaire at the doctors with my daughters, I end up having to re-write the questions. The forms are designed for parents who are husband and wife. Sometimes it feels like doctors are reeling off a heterosexual designed script, rather than looking at who is in front of them. When this happens repeatedly, on top of a lifetime of people making incorrect assumptions about you, it can make you shut down.
Speaking to a LGBTQIA+ health professional who understands our lived experience can help. Maybe even someone who looks like us or shares our heritage. But that isn’t often an option. For much of my life, I felt the impact of that gap. There wasn’t a place for culturally appropriate LGBTQIA+ support. We wanted to do something about that.
“Social isolation and loneliness have been some of the biggest things impacting the LGBTQIA+ community since Brexit and covid.”
Our services are developed by and specifically for LGBTQIA+ people. And our programs are tailored to the different, changing needs in the community. Some of those services are local, but much of the support we offer at Rainbow Mind is UK wide.
Social isolation and loneliness have been some of the biggest things impacting the LGBTQIA+ community since Brexit and Covid. Community spaces have closed and lots of diversity, inclusion and belonging activities have been halted in workplaces. Some LGBTQIA+ people feel scared to leave the house, because they don't know if they'll be welcomed in certain spaces anymore. That’s why we recently set up a program called Move with Pride, which runs virtual and in-person sessions, focusing on mindfulness and physical activity. Whether it’s boxing, walking, or swimming, it’s always a safe space where people can build community.
"Our Radical Self Care course is designed specifically for LGBTQIA+ people from racialised and marginalised communities."
We understand that some of the standard NHS therapy models don’t always help LGBTQIA+ people with the challenges they’re facing. That’s why we launched our Radical Self Care course, which we designed specifically for LGBTQIA+ people from racialised and marginalised communities. It’s a transformational eight-week program based on mindfulness, compassion and acceptance therapy.
We give people very specific tools to deal with difficult emotions, shame, and trauma. It’s run in groups by an LGBTQIA+ practitioner, so people can share their learnings and experiences in a supportive peer environment. Through the course, people learn how to be a better friend to themselves. It’s all about how they see themselves first, because there are so many overwhelming events happening in the world today that we can’t always control.
We've witnessed a rolling back of people's human rights and people in the community being weaponised in debates. With this landscape at the moment, there’s an acute lack of hope and psychological safety in our community – particularly for the trans community and for LGBTQIA+ people of colour.
We’re trying to empower and equip people with the tools to cope with discrimination. The phrase Radical Self Care was coined by the inspirational Black, Lesbian feminist Audre Lorde, who wrote about it in the 1980s. It's about self-care and self-preservation as an act of political resistance. We help people to build the strength that is needed to navigate life as LGBTQIA+ person.
Many LGBTQIA+ people have internalised layers of trauma and shame, starting from childhood. That can be even harder to work through when it’s compounded with not being able to get the right type of help over many years, and what we’re seeing culturally today. My hope for the future is that one day, there is more acceptance and understanding of this.
The good news is, things are changing. We’re starting to see those conversations happening in mental health spaces. People are asking themselves who’s at risk within our community? How can we serve them? Together, through co-creation and training, we can help LGBTQIA+ people access the support they need.
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