Informed, Affirming and Focused: Client Perspectives on the Importance of Specialist LGBTIQ + Family Violence and Other Health Services

Community-controlled organisations provide crucial services to support the health and wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, intersex, queer and other sexual and/or gender minority (LGBTIQ +) people. A strength of such organisations and their practitioners (many of whom are LGBTIQ +) is their cultural expertise, which can help to identify, understand and address the specific needs of LGBTIQ + clients, including in relation to family violence. While much discussion about standards of care for LGBTIQ + people has focused on a need for mainstream service providers and their non-LGBTIQ + practitioners to become more “culturally competent”, less has considered how clients experience services at community-controlled organisations.

In this article, we draw on 19 semi-structured interviews with clients of family violence services at an LGBTIQ + community-controlled organisation in Melbourne, Australia, to explore their perceptions of specialist LGBTIQ + services. Eleven participants were cisgender men, six were cisgender women and two were trans or gender diverse. In terms of sexual orientation, ten self-described as gay, one homosexual, two queer, three lesbian, one bisexual, one asexual and one preferred not to say. Thematic analysis was used to identify patterns of service experience.

Our research shows that participants felt that specialist services were most effective when they were informed about, affirming of and focused on the identities and specific health needs of LGBTIQ + clients. Participants had experienced what they perceived to be effective services within the context of LGBTIQ + community-controlled organisations, though felt that “mainstream” service providers were also potentially capable of providing good-quality support. A concerted effort on the part of these providers to embed culturally competent and LGBTIQ + -friendly practices into their services would help them achieve this outcome.

Specialist support was most visible in the context of LGBTIQ + community-controlled organisations but also possible in other health and wellbeing settings, which is promising for mainstream service providers and practitioners seeking to provide more inclusive care for LGBTIQ + people.

The insight of clients in this research is something that can potentially contribute to further discussion about the continued work both of LGBTIQ + community-controlled organisations and mainstream services.