Child and adolescent mental health clinicians working with LGBTIQ+ young people can use a new online toolkit to support best-practice, affirming mental healthcare.
According to anecdotal evidence from NSW Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) clinicians, up to 60% of young people accessing their services identify as LGBTIQ+. “These reports, along with existing research confirming the high prevalence of mental health challenges in the LGBTIQ+ community, revealed an urgent need for specialised, affirming mental health resources that would help improve outcomes for young people and their families,” explains ACI Mental Health Network Manager Lisa Thorpy.
This was the starting point for the ACI’s Mental Health Network to develop the Rainbow Resource, which supports clinicians to deliver affirming mental healthcare for LGBTIQ+ young people. The network first secured funding for the project from the Ministry of Health, to help achieve the NSW LGBTIQ+ Health Strategy 2022-2027. A statewide survey of CAMHS clinicians then informed the development, identifying the areas they wanted to understand better to provide best-practice care for LGBTIQ+ young people. In mid-2024, an expert working group was convened to develop the resource.
The resulting toolkit is the first of its kind in Australia to address this need for mental healthcare professionals working with LGBTIQ+ young people. It was launched in March 2025 by NSW Secretary for Health Susan Pearce AM, at a celebration that included many members of the working group involved in its development – including clinicians, community advocates and young people with lived experience.
“While it was designed with NSW Health Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) clinicians in mind,” explains Lisa, “this a valuable resource for a wide range of clinicians and healthcare professionals working with LGBTIQ+ young people.”
Co-design the key to success
Clinicians from CAMHS services across the state, community advocates, the ACI Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing team and young people with lived experience all worked together over the six-month development period.
The working group and its role in co-designing the resource was the key to the project’s success, says Mental Health Network LGBTIQ+ Project Officer AJ Jensen.
“Lived experience is an integral form of expertise for any health system project aiming to improve the experiences and work towards the health rights of marginalised communities in accessing affirming care. The lived experience members of the Rainbow Resource working group shaped this resource and asserted their skill, agency and collective healing in the process of co-design.”
The voices of these young people are centred throughout the guide, shaping its content. They share how their own interactions with clinicians - both positive and negative - have had an impact on their care, and what they want and need from mental health support. (Read more about the working group in Jackie Manners’ guest editorial.)
What I would really want from someone in a medical field is as simple as them saying: ‘I’m an ally. How do you identify? This is a safe place for you to express yourself as you are.'
Unpacking the toolkit
The Rainbow Resource offers a wealth of information, video content and links to organisations and resources, designed to support mental health clinicians to:
- understand LGBTIQ+ communities, history, identity and experience
- support LGBTIQ+ young people, their parents and carers in clinical practice
- foster an inclusive and effective therapeutic environment.
The one piece of advice I’d give clinicians who are working to understand LGTBIQ+ identity, is that this space is ever changing. If you don’t understand it yet, all you have to do is respect it.
Explore the Rainbow Resource
Rainbow resource artwork: Queer Joy by Mat Pal.