Peer support as an adaptive response to addressing 2SLGBTQI mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic


Kimberly Seida, Egale Canada

Physical and mental health disparities are heightened in 2SLGBTQI populations and are largely due to minority stressors such as recurring discrimination or a lack of social support (Frost and Meyer, 2023). The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these issues (Nowaskie and Roesler, 2022). Egale Canada’s Queering Mental Health Supports in Canada project employed social determinants of health and intersectional minority stress frameworks to address knowledge gaps concerning the pandemic’s impacts on social determinants of mental health among 2SLGBTQI people nationwide. Based on virtual focus groups and qualitative, semi-structured interviews conducted in 2022 with 42 2SLGBTQI community members and 19 service providers (N = 61), a national survey (N = 304), as well as virtual community consultation events, this paper explores the challenges 2SLGBTQI community members are facing because of the pandemic’s impacts, particularly those related to social and peer-based supports, as well as their response to these challenges. Findings from thematic analyses revealed widespread impacts on numerous social determinants of mental health, including decreased access to physical and mental healthcare, housing, income security, food security, employment, and social supports. Negative changes in social support were one of the most widely cited impacts. Consequently, this paper highlights the role of both informal and formal peer supports in shaping 2SLGBTQI individuals’ mental health and well-being throughout the pandemic. Peer support has largely been marginalized within formalized mental health services as a valid form of mental healthcare, with limited Canadian research showing its efficacy, especially among 2SLGBTQI service seekers. Our data further demonstrate the value of having mental health supports provided by those who share lived experiences with those receiving care. Survey findings showed that over half of our survey participants (54%) (n = 163) indicated moderate to severe negative changes in social support during the pandemic (e.g., loss of contact with some or all family and friends). However, despite drastic public health measures inducing barriers to social support, survey respondents and focus group participants still found ways to access social and peer-based supports. When asked about the sources of mental health support they had sought out since the start of the pandemic, 68% (n = 194) of survey respondents had reached out to friends, and 11% (n = 33) had reached out to peer counsellors/navigators. Qualitative findings also revealed connections between a lack of social support and mental health issues, such as anxiety, loneliness, burnout, and suicidality. In efforts to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on access to community connections and social support, participants widely discussed peer support as a form of mental health care which they were already accessing or hoped to access to deal with pandemic-related stressors. Benefits of peer support included empowerment, social support, increased empathy, acceptance, hope, and reduced stigma (Repper and Carter, 2011). In our study, seeking out peer-based supports was directly connected to acute challenges faced by participants in attempts to access more formalized mental healthcare (e.g., counselling, social work). Our findings put forward recommendations for service providers and funders to prioritize peer and community-based supports to holistically address 2SLGBTQI mental health and well-being. Indeed, the growth of peer support networks and care models holds promise for 2SLGBTQI service seekers facing increased mental healthcare access barriers since the pandemic. However, findings and emergent recommendations stress the continued need for systemic social, political, and economic changes to meaningfully address the growing disparities facing 2SLGBTQI communities across Canada. These structural changes include de-siloing approaches to mental healthcare (i.e., integrating formalized and peer-based models of care), increasing 2SLSGBTQI representation among healthcare providers, and implementing queer-specific, intersectional, and wholistic approaches to mental healthcare (including robust peer-based supports) which actively respond to harms caused by structural and interpersonal discrimination and marginalization.

Non-presenting author: Brittany Jakubiec, Eagle Canada; Félix Desmeules-Trudel, Egale Canada

This paper will be presented at the following session: