Why mental healthcare for LGBTQIA+ community needs to improve in India

I first went to therapy when I was at the lowest point in my life and feeling suicidalrdquo says TEDx speaker and diversity leader Ankita Mehra ldquobut my therapist made me feel even worse like there was no hoperdquoMehra who was based in Nagpur at the time decided to try therapy in her late teens seeking out a trusted professional to confide in ldquoI came out to my therapist before my parents even knew about my identity because I thought therapy was meant to be a completely judgementfree zone However when I opened up to him he told me it wasnrsquot natural and that I should try with a boy I felt he was pushing for conversion therapyrdquo Mehrarsquos horrific experience is one of many that reveal the startling inadequacies in psychological care for LGBTQiA individuals in IndiaThe diversity leader adds ldquoIrsquove even seen a screenshot from the Practo app in which a doctor advertised conversion therapy The man had posted that he could lsquofixrsquo someone who is gayrdquo Practo is an app where users can arrange online consultations with medical professionals and has a huge number of users from all across the country ldquoAny random user in search of a therapist on this app could come across ads like this which is incredibly dangerousrdquoAnkita Mehra Pooja Nair and Ankur PaliwalAn alternative approach is queeraffirmative mental healthcare QAMHC Psychiatrist Dr Jithin T Joseph recently published an article in the Journal of Psychosocial Health entitled Queer Affirmative Approach in Mental Health A Need of the Hour in Indian Mental Healthcare with guidelines for professionals Dr Joseph says practitioners must ldquorecognise historical wrongdoings towards queer peoplerdquoHe explains that in the past ldquomental health professionals would try to change a personrsquos sexual orientation or gender identity using conversion therapies However conversion therapies donrsquot have any scientific rationale and cause more harm to queer individualsrdquoAnkur Paliwal the founder and editor of a collaborative journalism project Queerbeat emphasises the importance of understanding that being queer is not a mental illness He says ldquoWe should be careful not to pathologise queer identities Queer people are surrounded by hostility Itrsquos the society that is the problem not our identitiesrdquoPaliwalrsquos own experience highlights how government mental health services in particular need to drastically improve their treatment of queer individuals ldquoI went to a senior psychologist in Delhi in a renowned government hospital The psychologist didnrsquot know the appropriate terminology to refer to queer people and kept using lsquootheringrsquo language repeatedly referring to us as lsquothese peoplersquo At one point she even said the hospital could lsquomake me straightrsquordquoHe adds ldquoAs a journalist I have seen evidence that doctors often misgender trans people There is a lack of training and more crucially a lack of genuine empathy for the LGBTQiA communityrdquo Referencing an article he commissioned for Queerbeat he says ldquothe reporter travelled to government hospitals Some psychologists didnrsquot even know the difference between trans and gay identitiesrdquoRaj Mariwala director of Mariwala Health Initiative aimed at providing accessible mental health support for marginalised communities points out that queer and trans people exist in a world where they are the minority and therefore cope with systems that were not designed with them in mindldquoQueer people experience hostility that should be accounted for but this approach doesnrsquot exist in the curricula for professionalsrdquo they add Mariwala runs a sixday course on queeraffirmative therapy Pooja Nair a faculty member for this course adds ldquoA positive sign is that the number of counsellors who want to equip themselves to be queeraffirmative has increased but further change is still neededrdquo