Addressing the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, and questioning clients within university psychiatric services: reflections and recommendations.
Concerns still exist among lesbian-, gay-, bisexual-, transgendered-, and queer-identified individuals (LGBTQ individuals) about their reception and treatment by psychiatric service providers. The Psychiatric Service at the University of Toronto and the Office of LGBTQ Resources and Programs convened a committee to address expanding the capacities of the Service related to the needs of LGBTQ and questioning students. In this paper, we describe the committee's role, initiatives, and successes and discuss challenges encountered in the process. The model of community development drawn from in this work can be adapted for use in other community health settings.