“The Multiple Lives of Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Psy Disciplines”

ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme, UK 

Tomás Ojeda

Building on some of the findings of my doctoral research, this project is a critical exploration into the particularities of diversity work in the field of LGBTQIA+ mental health from the perspective of psychologists, psychiatrists and activists working with LGBTQIA+ people in Chile and the UK. It explores what a non-pathologising, affirmative and intersectional approach to mental health means and does for mental health professionals and the community they work with. In addition to these, the project suggests incorporating the principle of reparation into our understanding of health care with sexual/gender dissident people, contributing to addressing the historical harms, abuses and human rights violations that have been inflicted on them by the state, the psi disciplines and academia more broadly. 

The above aims were carried out through knowledge exchange methodologies that were inspired by the need to bring to the fore the participants’ lived experience and expert knowledge of their health needs to inform decision-making processes involved in the design of mental health policies, institutional guidelines and recommendations targeting minoritised groups. 

The workshop series fed into a co-produced report with practice recommendations to broaden our understanding of LGBTQIA+ mental health, exchange resources, and forge transnational solidarities to resist current attempts to limit access to LGBTQIA+ affirmative care in Chile and the UK. Overall, the fellowship seeks to engage various stakeholders from within and outside academia on issues related to mental health, diversity and inclusion, social justice, and transnational feminist politics.