Drug & alcohol use among LGBTS in the city of Leeds

Abstract

Project A Representatives from seven drug and alcohol organisations in Leeds were interviewed about the services they provide and how accessible they believe those services to be to be for lesbian, gay,bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities in the City of Leeds. Key findings: ● Only one of the groups had ever held an LGBT specific support group ● Only one of the groups were aware that they had LGB or, by implication, transgender clients, the rest were unsure as they do not ask such information of their clients ● Two of the groups had attended training sessions on LGBT specific issues ● None of the groups had any specific policies in place for treating/supporting LGBT clients ● Two of the groups had equality statements in their leaflets making LGBTs aware that they would be welcome ● Three of the support groups distributed their leaflets at LGBT support groups and venues

Project B

101 participants completed a short questionnaire which asked about their use of alcohol and other substance, whether they had ever accessed any of the services in Leeds and had unprotected sex as a result of drug use. The main findings were as follows: ● 4% of the sample had no know history of substance use, including alcohol ● 21% of the sample reported using a Class ‘A’ substance, the most commonly cited was Ecstasy ● 4% of participants had attended a drug or alcohol support group in Leeds ● Of the 97 who had not accessed any of Leeds’ drug or alcohol services, 64 argued that they did not believe their alcohol/drug use to be a problem ● Of the 64, 20 scored highly on a standardised measure of drug and alcohol addiction risk ● 49% reported having had unsafe sex in the past year while under the influence of alcohol and/or other substances

Recommendations

The following recommendations are made: ● To increase awareness among drug and alcohol services of the specific needs of LGBTs ● To make drug and alcohol support services more accessible for LGBTs ● To increase awareness among LGBT communities of the existence and location of alcohol and drug services ● To increase awareness of the dangers associated with drug and alcohol use