This research forms part of the LGBT Youth Scotland Life in Scotland for LGBT Young People research project, which has been running for fifteen years, with surveys being undertaken to find out what life is like in Scotland for LGBTQ+ young people every five years. A full research report was published in April 2022 following analysis of 1,279 responses to our most recent survey, making this the biggest piece of research on this demographic to date. Following this, we have begun producing supplementary topic-specific reports diving deeper into qualitative responses given by participants. The first of these, our Education Report, was published earlier this year and this Health Report is the second of these publications.

In our full report, participants were asked about five health services: GPs; Accident & Emergency; Gender Identity Clinics; Mental Health Services; and Sexual Health Services. Across all five services, we noted that the percentage of participants telling us they felt safe and supported was lower than when we last ran this survey in 2017. This prompted us to further explore the ways in which participants believe health services can improve LGBTQ+ young people’s experiences. Analysis of qualitative responses relating to health services produced four key themes describing how participants currently experience health services.