Health Services
(asked on 3rd March 2016) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) LGBT and (b) BAME communities are represented in literature relating to (i) sexual and (ii) mental health.
It is a matter for commissioners to assess how best to target specific communities within their populations based upon consideration of the cultural diversity and make up and their responsibilities to have regard to equality under the Equality Act 2010 and the need to reduce health inequalities under the NHS Act 2006 as applicable.
Public Health England has produced an action plan that promotes the health and wellbeing of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men and recognises the interrelationship between sexual and mental health. The action plan is available at:
In July 2014, the Joint Commissioning Panel for Mental Health published guidance for commissioners of mental health services for those from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities which is available at:
http://www.jcpmh.info/wp-content/uploads/jcpmh-bme-guide.pdf
The Department has been working with NHS England and commissioners to disseminate this guidance which describes what ‘good’ mental health services for people from BME communities look like.
The Joint Commissioning Panel also provides guidance on public mental health which highlights taking account of people at higher risk of mental health problems in their commissioning strategies, which includes people from LGBT communities:
http://www.jcpmh.info/good-services/public-mental-health-services/