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 The report released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration (SAMHSA) comes less than a year after the
Obama administration endorsed efforts to ban the practice, which
aims to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or
gender expression.
“Conversion therapies or other efforts to change sexual orientation,
gender identity or gender expression are not effective, reinforce
harmful gender stereotypes and are not appropriate mental health
treatments,” said SAMHSA Special Expert on LGBT Affairs Elliot
Kennedy.
Instead, the report says, these youngsters should “be supported in
their right to explore, define, and articulate their own identity.”
Variations in sexual orientation, gender identity and gender
expression are normal, Kennedy told Reuters Health.
There is no evidence to support the use of conversion therapy, and
furthermore, the practice is potentially harmful, according to the
report, which was developed with the help of a July 2015 panel of
experts convened by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Some of the potential harms include increases in depression,
anxiety, suicidal thoughts and poor self-esteem, said Judith
Glassgold, associate executive director of the APA’s government
relations office in Washington, D.C.
Those negative mental health effects may contribute to substance
abuse and risky sexual behaviors by some youngsters, she said.
Many practitioners of conversion therapy are unlicensed, and many
have religious training rather than medical training, said Dr. Jack
Drescher, an expert on LGBT mental health and a psychiatrist and
psychoanalyst in New York City who was not involved with the report.
It’s important, he said, for people “to be informed about the
potentials for harm” from conversion therapy.
Four U.S. states and the District of Columbia have already banned
the practice among minors as of August 2015, the report says.
Another 21 states and the U.S Congress have considered or are
considering bans.
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Better information, training, and education for behavioral health
providers and decreasing stigma and negative attitudes toward LGBT
identities also help eliminate harmful practices, it says.
The report includes information for families, educators and care
providers on how to support LGBT children, including the use of
behavioral health and medical care that takes an affirmative
approach.
The report is online (at http://store.samhsa.gov), “so parents can
read it,” Glassgold said.
Sean Cahill, director of health policy research at The Fenway
Institute in Boston, said the report echoes past comments and
statements from experts and professional organizations.
“Adolescents are figuring out who they are, and it’s important to be
supportive and affirming of your child and to engage in that process
of identity development in a way . . . that’s not harmful to them,”
said Cahill, who also was not involved in the report.
SOURCE: http://1.usa.gov/1LPaL30 SAMHSA, online October 15, 2015.
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