Suicide Prevention Awareness Month 

In a recent post on Scholarly Kitchen, three writers shared personal stories expressing concern over the White House’s decision to eliminate federal funding for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ youth services, effective on Wednesday.  As a nonprofit organization committed to advancing open science and fostering inclusive, equitable access to knowledge, we applaud their efforts to bring attention to this matter.  

This specialized service has provided life-saving support to over 1.3 million LGBTQ+ young people since its inception in 2022. Its closure comes at a time when LGBTQ+ youth face disproportionately high rates of suicidal ideation and mental health challenges, often exacerbated by discrimination, stigma, and lack of culturally competent care. 

We stand firmly behind the principles of openness, inclusion, and equity—values that are foundational to our mission. We believe that science and public health must serve all communities, especially those most vulnerable. The decision to defund LGBTQ+-specific crisis services undermines evidence-based public health policy and disregards the urgent needs of a population at elevated risk.  

We are committed to publishing and promoting research that informs compassionate, inclusive, and scientifically sound health interventions. Below is a list of studies from PLOS journals, specific to this topic, and a list of resources that LGBTQ+ people can access if they need help (these resources were mentioned in the Scholarly Kitchen post). 

Resources:

• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

• The Trevor Project 

• Virtual Hope Box, Suicide Safe, and Suicide Safety Plan

Studies: 

PLOS Mental Health

• Nonverbal expressions of shame predict suicidal ideation among rurally-situated, but not urban situated, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) adults

• Multilevel barriers and facilitators to behavioral health treatment among Latino sexual minority men 
• The role of social determinants of health in mental health: An examination of the moderating effects of race, ethnicity, and gender on depression through the all of us research program dataset     
• Trauma and resilience in an urban clinic for unhoused young adults: A mixed methods study 

PLOS Medicine

• A multicomponent digital intervention to promote help-seeking for mental health problems and suicide in sexual and gender diverse young adults: A randomized controlled trial | PLOS Medicine
• The effect of a therapeutic smartphone application on suicidal ideation in young adults: Findings from a randomized controlled trial in Australia | PLOS Medicine
• Development and validation of the Durham Risk Score for estimating suicide attempt risk: A prospective cohort analysis | PLOS Medicine