Sickness, “sin” and discrimination: Examining a challenge for UK mental health nursing practice with lesbian, gay and bisexual people

Western psychiatry has a history of pathologising and attempting to ‘cure’ same-sex attraction, the legacy of which can still affect mental health practice today. Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people have greater risk of experiencing certain types of mental distress, self-harm and suicidal thoughts and behaviour as well as at risk of experiencing discrimination within mental health services. The minority stress model is important for understanding the higher levels of mental distress among LGB people. type of discrimination in mental health services is appearing that has its origins in certain practitioner religious beliefs where same-sex attraction is interpreted as sinful. This has led to the reappearance of the idea that LGB people can be cured of their same-sex attraction, but with religious rather than psychiatric conceptual underpinnings. This may have particular implications for mental health nursing practice, where nurses have religious beliefs that bring them into conflict with the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Code of Conduct that forbids discrimination, and their legal obligation to work within the UK Equality Act 2010.