The Trevor Project Helps LGBTQ Youth Mental Health Through Grant

A recently released national survey by The Trevor Project shows nearly half of the American LGBTQ population wants mental health support but cannot access it; half of all LGBTQ youth of color reported discrimination based on their race/ethnicity in the past year, and 42 percent of LGBTQ youth considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a public advisory about the pandemic’s impact on adolescents’ mental health, referencing the spike in anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Though, the COVID-19 pandemic has especially affected a historically underserved, high-risk community: LGBTQ youth of color.

But, through a grant from Bristol Myers Squibb, The Trevor Project has helped more than 100,000 LGBTQ youth since the beginning of the pandemic, including 25,000 Black, Hispanic, and Latinx LGBTQ youth.

Bristol Myers Squibb awarded $11.1 million in Corporate Giving grants to 56 nonprofit organizations across the United States to improve access to high-quality care, increase disease awareness, and provide education for medically underserved communities earlier in 2021. The donations were awarded in response to a special request for proposals, leveraging $11 million of the $150 million pledged by the company in August 2020 to advance diversity, inclusion, and health equity.

In addition to The Trevor Project, the grant recipients included US-based patient advocacy and community-based organization, health equity coalitions, medical societies, nonprofit healthcare institutions, and more.

“We are realizing our vision to transform patients’ lives through science as we build upon our company’s strong foundation of addressing global health disparities to become one of the world’s most inclusive biopharma companies,” says Adam Lenkowsky, senior vice president, general manager of U.S. Commercial at Bristol Myers Squibb, in a news release when the announcement was made. “We understand that the need has never been more urgent, and we have made it a priority to focus our capabilities and resources to eliminate the barriers to accessing high-quality care that exist for underserved and vulnerable populations.”

Muneer Panjwani, vice president for foundation, government, and corporate partnerships at The Trevor Project, says that mental health challenges impacting young people have been on the rise for years, compounded by the pandemic.

“The erosion of real world social contacts and uncertainty about the future contributed to an uptick in mental health struggles for many young people,” Panjwani says. “For LGBTQ youth, being confined to potentially unsupportive home environments has made the pandemic a uniquely difficult time. Our research has found that 70 percent of all LGBTQ youth stated their mental health was ‘poor’ most of the time or always during COVID-19, while only one in three LGBTQ youth found their home to be LGBTQ-affirming.”

He says the grant has empowered The Trevor Project to serve more LGBTQ young people, particularly Black and Latinx LGBTQ youth who have historically faced more barriers to accessing mental healthcare. Panjwani adds that it is extremely important to those at the Trevor Project that their free, confidential crisis services are culturally competent for LGBTQ youth of all intersecting identities, citing the grant from Bristol Myers Squibb and other donors.

“Through more targeted outreach and marketing to increase awareness of our services, recruiting a more diverse pool of volunteers, and conducting research on how best to serve Black and Latinx LGBTQ youth, we are building the competencies and capacity to serve the broad spectrum of LGBTQ young people who need us,” Panjwani says. “In 2021, 45 percent of youth we served identified as people of color compared to 35 percent in 2020. This growth is due to Trevor’s commitment to serving racially diverse LGBTQ youth and partners like BMS who ensure organizations have funds to support these commitments.”