LGBTQ+ Youth and Families
COMPLETED STUDIES
GETTING AIR
Principal Investigator: Walter Bockting, PhD, and Anke Ehrhardt, PhD
Getting AIR (Acceptance, Inclusion, and Respect) was a demonstration project in partnership with the Independent School Diversity Network (ISDN) with the goal to develop opportunities for students to learn more about diversity in gender identity and expression, connect with peers, and receive social support. To achieve this goal, we brought together students from participating schools using an online platform. Getting AIR consisted of facilitated online group discussions via Zoom teleconferencing and a collection of short videos with first-person accounts of transgender and non-binary youth and adults. Students from multiple independent schools came together in one-hour sessions will last one hour with Michele Grethel from The Spence School and Walter Bockting form Columbia University.
OnTrackNY - Improving Life Trajectories for Youth with Early Psychosis
Principal Investigator: Liza Dixon, MD
The goal of this project is to establish community outreach efforts for youth with early psychosis (indicative of emerging schizophrenia), who will be will be identified and connected with evidence-based treatment. Shortening the duration of untreated psychosis reduces disability so often associated with schizophrenia by helping youth stay on-track with respect to school/work, relationships, and health. Two new teams will be added to New York’s OnTrackNY initiative to provide evidence-based Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) to youth with early psychosis. OnTrackNY uses a Critical Time Intervention model to provide, over the course of about 2 years, emotional and practical support while strengthening youths’ ties to treatment, family and friends during the critical period of early psychosis. Drs. Bockting and Ehrhardt are lending their expertise to build capacity to reach out to LGBT youth with early psychosis, assess and respond to their specific needs, and strengthen the factors of resilience identified in empirical research. This includes development of tailored outreach materials; training in LGBT cultural and clinical competence for providers, staff, and referral networks; education for youth, families, and schools; and support for youth’s identity development. Clinicians affiliated with the LGBT Health Initiative are also available for consultation and liaison, including in the highly specialized area of transgender health.