What young people think of LGBTQ+ support in Wiltshire

Our Young Healthwatch Wiltshire volunteers designed and ran a short survey for young people, aged 11-25. The online survey ran for about 12 weeks and was shared with schools, colleges and the voluntary sector specifically working with children and young people. 

What were the key findings?

• There is a need for LGBTQ+ support in Wiltshire and there is currently a gap in services.
• Education was seen as key in addressing the lack of understanding and discrimination faced by the LGBTQ+ community. This included changes in language and normalisation of pronoun use.
• Advice and information was seen as an important area where young people could make informed decisions about the support they needed, but finding support was difficult.
• Sex education was identified as a support need and for sexual health services to be LGBTQ+ inclusive.
• Transgender healthcare was raised as an issue with long waiting lists for HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) and a lack of gender reassignment surgeries.

Conclusions and recommendations

The report draws conclusions from the views and experiences that have been shared with us and makes recommendations based on these. The recommendations make suggestions that aim to improve young people’s experiences of health and care services going forwards, based on what they have told us.