LGBTQ+ Australians are as much as three times more likely to experience mental health disorders as the rest of the population, according to new research from Monash University researchers.
The study, which analysed data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2020-2022 National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, found more than half of cisgender non-heterosexual and more than one third of transgender Australians are diagnosed with a mental disorder.
The findings show these individuals have up to 3.5 times higher risk of experiencing high or very high psychological distress compared to the rest of the population.
The research compared three groups: cisgender heterosexual people, cisgender non-heterosexual people, and transgender people of any sexual orientation. Senior researcher Dr Long Le, a Senior Research Fellow in the Monash School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said the findings highlight persistent mental health inequities affecting queer communities.
“These findings were really startling, and show that we still have a long way to go in breaking down the barriers to access and treatment for LGBTQ+ Australians,” Dr Le said.
“Many LGBTQ+ Australians continue to face stigma, discrimination, social exclusion, and barriers to accessing affirming healthcare.
“These experiences can have profound and lasting effects on mental wellbeing and day-to-day functioning.”
The study assessed both diagnosed mental disorders and subthreshold mental disorders, conditions where individuals experience clinically significant symptoms that do not meet the full criteria for a formal diagnosis.
Across all groups, anxiety disorders were the most reported mental health condition.
Some 41.3 per cent of cisgender non-heterosexual Australians and 27.2 per cent of transgender Australians reported high or very high psychological distress, compared with 15.5 per cent of cisgender heterosexual Australians.
Beyond mental health diagnoses, the research found that LGBTQ+ participants experienced greater impacts on their daily functioning.
Functional disability scores were 11.1 per cent higher among cisgender non-heterosexual participants, and 8.7 per cent higher among transgender participants, compared with cisgender heterosexual participants.
Lead researcher Dr Bernice Hua Ma, Research Fellow at the Monash School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said the findings highlight the broader social factors contributing to mental health inequities.
“The mental health disparities identified in this study cannot be understood solely through individual-level factors,” Dr Ma said.
“Reducing these inequities will require more than expanding mental health services.
“It will also require tackling the social and structural barriers that undermine the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ communities and ensuring that healthcare settings are inclusive, safe, and responsive to their needs.”
Co-author Rebecca Smith, from peak body LGBTIQ+ Health Australia, said the study provides important national evidence to inform service design and policy.
“Governments and service providers must recognise that LGBTIQA+ community-led organisations and lived experience leadership are fundamental to effective mental health responses, bringing the knowledge, trust and community connection needed to achieve better outcomes,” Smith said.
“It’s also important to understand that these mental health disparities are not an inherent consequence of being LGBTQ+.
“They are shaped by factors such as discrimination, stigma, minority stress and broader social determinants of health, which means solutions must extend beyond individual treatment and address the systemic drivers of poorer mental health outcomes.”
Read the research paper: http://doi.org/10.1177/00048674261476859
This research was funded in part by Dr Long Le’s Monash Future Leadership Fellowship.
Note: The number of transgender participants was insufficient to separately analyse heterosexual and non-heterosexual transgender respondents, so transgender participants were analysed as a single group regardless of sexual orientation. The dataset did not permit separate analysis for people with innate variations of sex characteristics, which highlights the continuing need for better national data collection.
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