For more information and latest events, visit us at Instagram , Eventbrite & Linktree.
Rainbow Mind is an LGBTQIA+ mental health service, which is led and staffed by LGBTQIA+ people.
Rainbow Mind is led by Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest and Mind in Salford.
We focus solely on LGBTQIA+ mental health because research shows health outcomes are often worse for LGBTQIA+ people than for the general population.
As a result people who identify as LGBTQIA+ in the UK also report a lower quality of life. This is for a range of different reasons, which we understand and identify with. We believe that as LGBTQIA+ therapists and staff, we are best placed to support LGBTQIA+ people for better mental health.
Our services include 1 to 1 therapy, mindfulness movement sessions (Move With Pride) as well as support groups and courses, such as Radical Self Care (RadSec) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
We also work with Young LGBTQIA+ people. Queer Connect is a fortnightly, UK wide, online drop-in session for 18-30 yrs old, which offers a safe space to share and connect, and engage in creative exercises for mental health and wellbeing. Queer Connect is temporarily on pause, but we hope to have the funding to resume it soon.
2024-2025 was the first year of Rainbow Mind’s Youth Advisory Committee; a panel of 6 young LGBTQIA+ people with diverse lived experience of mental health who have been informing and shaping our organisation and services.
For more information and latest events, email us or visit us at Instagram , Eventbrite & Linktree.
- According to national Mind, 42% of gay men and 70% of lesbian women experience mental health problems.
- In 2014, a survey by the University of Cambridge found that Britain’s LGBTQIA+ population are twice as likely to suffer from chronic mental health problems than those not in the LGBTQIA+ community.
- Gay and bisexual men are four times more likely to attempt suicide across their lifetime than the rest of the population.
- CliniQ, a service working with transgender people in London, reports that over 50% of transgender people have considered or attempted suicide, and over 80% experience depression.
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Rainbow Mind aims to:
- challenge assumptions, fears and prejudices about people who experience mental health problems and about the lives of people who identify as LGBTQIA+.
- reduce social isolation for LGBTQ+ people by providing opportunities to socialise with other LGBTQIA+ people and have access to community support.
- offer inclusive, sensitive and non-judgmental support, by providing a safe space for LGBTQIA+ individuals to be their true selves free from judgement or discrimination.