The Big Lottery Fund is to give PACE (The Project For Advocacy, Counselling and Education) £496,853 for a study seeking to understand which LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people are more likely to suffer from elevated risks of attempted suicide. They will also look at alcohol dependence among lesbian and bisexual women, and eating and body image problems among gay and bisexual men.
 
The England-wide project is in partnership with Aston, Brunel, South Bank and Greenwich Universities. The beneficiaries will be 5,600 individuals and 175 organisations, including LGBT people experiencing or at risk of experiencing the problems studied, who will benefitfrom improved services.
 
Tim Franks of PACE said:
“We are so excited about receiving this award. We will be working with our academic partners over the next five years to try and understand why some lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are more at risk of certain mental health problems.
 
“We are keen to move beyond needs assessment and to learn about the factors that can help people become more resilient and which LGBT people mental health services should  target for support. We want our project to be user led and will be looking to recruit a user board to oversee this work. Anyone interested should contact Tim Franks at tim.franks@pacehealth.org.uk. It is so reassuring to see the Big Lottery supporting large scale LGBT projects in this way.”
 
The Metro Centre Ltd is receiving £499,648 to undertake research into the difficulties faced by LGBT people and those questioning their sexuality, and their access to relevant services. It will compare the situation of LGBT young adults to the Children’s Plan 2020 and Every Child Matters goals and targets to inform the development of policy and services based on systematic, up-to-date evidence.