Looking for ways to support the Trans, Intersex, or Gender-diverse youth you care about? Making Connections can help.

Feb 16, 2023

Lindsay Miller speaks from personal experience when they stress the impact that acceptance and support has on the wellbeing of a young person who identifies as 2SLGBTQIA+.  

Miller, who came out in their thirties, and says the “soft landing” they received from their community had a positive impact in their mental health. 

“I owe a lot of my own mental wellbeing to the queer community, and I think, because of that,  I’ve been on an ongoing journey of becoming more and more myself.” 

But, as Miler points out, many youths don’t have that experience. And the impact can result in poor mental health and higher risk of suicide. 

“I’ve seen the deep pain that comes from not being able to express ourselves, or from being judged or harmed when we do.It breaks my heart when I read and hear of the high suicide rates of these brilliant, creative and unique youth. I want so much for everyone to have the space they need and deserve, to be celebrated, and to be supported as they discover exactly who they are.” 

That’s why Miller, who is one of CMHA NS’s education and training coordinators, developed Making Connections for 2SLGBTQIA+, a webinar series that provides parents and caregivers with opportunities to gain connection, education and information from subject experts and people with lived experience.

The series, which is co-hosted by Roots of Hope Nova Scotia and funded in part by the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia, covers topics that include how to create safe spaces, advocacy, gender affirming care and resource navigation.

Sessions are co-facilitated by experts and people with lived experience. 

“In all the literature about mental health and 2SLGBTQIA+ youth that’s I’ve read, I kept noticing that a very strong protective factor against suicide is feeling supported by the adults in their lives, particularly a supportive parent or caregiver. And yet there seemed to be a gap in services directed to those parents that would help them to effectively understand and support their kids.”

Miller says she found these supports especially difficult to find in rural areas. 

The series kicked off in September 2022 and will conclude on March 22, 2023.

There are two sessions left in the series, but Miller says they are perhaps some of the most important to attend. 

Building Community with 2SLGBTQIA+ youth in rural Nova Scotia will he held on February 23, followed by the Power of Peer Support on March 22. 

These sessions will include a panel of guests who will be able to speak from a place of lived experience, which Miller stresses is the voice she has worked to elevate through Making Connections.

“I hope that parents and caregivers come away from the sessions feeling more clear about what options are available for them and for the youth they care about, and feeling more connected to a large and deeply caring community of professionals, peer support, and other parents in the province, even if they don’t have a lot of support in their own communities. There are many amazing groups doing incredible work to cultivate spaces for people to be themselves in our province. This project has allowed me to really start to see that – and I hope it does the same for others. “

Learn more about Making Connections