Let’s Connect: Impact Evaluation of an Intervention to Reduce Mental Health Disparities Among People Who are LGBTQ+ 

TL;DR

The 'Let’s Connect' program significantly improved mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ individuals during a 12-week pilot study.

Contribution

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a new mental health intervention specifically designed for LGBTQ+ people.

Findings

Mental health outcomes improved significantly after the 6-week intervention.

Improvements were maintained at the 12-week follow-up.

The study highlights the need for further research with a control group.

Abstract

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or similarly identified (LGBTQ+) people experience substantial mental health disparities compared to heterosexuals. The “Let’s Connect” intervention was designed to improve mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ people. This impact evaluation aimed to assess effectiveness of this intervention during its pilot phase, using a single arm pilot trial. Respondents completed baseline surveys at intervention start, a post survey on the last day of the intervention (at 6 weeks), then a follow-up survey 6 weeks after the intervention ended (at 12 weeks). Pre-post differences in outcomes were analyzed using paired t-tests, chi-square tests, and generalized estimating equations to evaluate impact on mental health outcomes at 6 and 12 weeks, and identify characteristics associated with loss to follow-up. The average value of all three outcome measures decreased substantially between the baseline and post surveys; all of these differences were highly statistically significant, and further decreased between the end of the intervention at 6 weeks and the 12 week follow-up survey. Let’s Connect participants did experience substantial improvements in mental health outcomes, on average, between the start and end of this intervention. Further study of this intervention using a randomized design and control group is warranted.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10597-024-01231-4.