Work generally is a place of id and belonging, but it surely will also be a supply of stress that undermines psychological well being, particularly when the office tradition is unsupportive or hostile.
For LGBTQ+ employees, there are extra danger elements, together with experiences of exclusion, stigma, and discrimination that proceed to form day by day working lives. Nationwide surveys present that just about 40% of LGBTQ+ workers within the UK nonetheless disguise their id at work for concern of damaging penalties (Stonewall, 2025), whereas 4 in ten report experiencing office battle corresponding to humiliation, verbal abuse, or discrimination (CIPD, 2021).
Trans employees are significantly deprived, with over half reporting harassment and fewer than half describing their office as inclusive (LGBT Well being & Wellbeing, 2021). Latest UK stories spotlight persistent obstacles to LGBTQ+ profession development, from bias in hiring and promotion to an absence of seen position fashions (The Delight and Management Report, 2025).
Whereas these nationwide surveys present invaluable insights into office experiences, educational analysis provides one other perspective by analyzing psychological well being outcomes in a extra systematic manner. Tomic et al. (2025) got down to assessment the obtainable quantitative proof on LGBTQ+ employees’ psychological well being, mapping what’s at the moment identified and figuring out the place additional analysis is required.
Nationwide surveys spotlight ongoing obstacles for LGBTQ+ employees, however what does worldwide analysis proof present about their psychological well being?
Strategies
The authors consulted with a bunch of LGBTQ+ people on the conceptualisation stage after which carried out a preregistered PRISMA-compliant systematic assessment. They searched 5 main databases from 2000–2024 for quantitative or mixed-methods research that reported psychological well being outcomes amongst LGBTQ+ employees.
The inclusion standards had been pretty strict: research needed to concentrate on employees and report ICD-10 psychological well being situations corresponding to despair, nervousness, PTSD, or suicidality and needed to be revealed within the English language. Research that included college students or navy personnel, in addition to qualitative research, commentaries, or measures of office wellbeing that didn’t map onto psychiatric diagnoses (e.g. burnout, job stress) had been excluded. The standard of included research was assessed utilizing the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) crucial appraisal instruments.
The authors systematically searched the literature between 2000-2024 to determine English-language research of psychological well being outcomes amongst LGBTQ+ employees.
Outcomes
Who was studied?
The assessment included 32 research from 33 papers with a complete of 8,369 LGBTQ+ employees. Nearly all had been cross-sectional, and over a 3rd targeted on intercourse employees. The remaining had been unfold thinly throughout occupations corresponding to healthcare, instructing, farming, emergency companies, and veterinary apply.
What psychological well being issues had been studied?
Despair and nervousness had been probably the most generally measured outcomes, with prevalence estimates various extensively relying on the research (24–87% for despair; 0–80% for nervousness). Suicidality was one other constant concern, with particularly excessive charges amongst emergency service employees and veterinary professionals. Different situations, together with alcohol and substance use, PTSD, and consuming problems, had been reported much less usually.
What elements had been linked to danger?
The assessment highlighted office heterosexism, job stress, internalised stigma, and low supervisor help as contributors to poor psychological well being. Few research explored protecting elements, however those who did advised that stronger help networks might buffer danger.
What comparisons the place made?
Out of the 32 research included within the assessment, solely 16 truly in contrast LGBTQ+ employees with heterosexual or cisgender colleagues, or with different subgroups. The place comparisons had been made, the sample was usually constant: LGBTQ+ employees tended to report worse outcomes. For instance, a big US survey discovered that LGBTQ+ workers had been virtually twice extra possible than heterosexual employees to report despair and nervousness.
In Australia, LGBQ+ emergency service personnel had been practically six instances extra prone to try suicide than their heterosexual colleagues. Within the UK, junior docs who recognized as LGB had been additionally at higher danger of suicidality than their heterosexual colleagues. In contrast, some subgroup comparisons inside LGBTQ+ employees, corresponding to variations between lesbian and homosexual {couples}, or between intercourse employees and non–intercourse employees produced extra combined outcomes that can’t result in particular conclusions.
Worrying outcomes emerged, with LGBTQ+ despair starting from 24–87%. The place comparisons had been made, LGBTQ+ employees reported poorer psychological well being.
Conclusions
The assessment recognized a restricted variety of research that confirmed worrying outcomes on the subject of the self-reported psychological well being of LGBTQ+ employees, suggesting elevated danger of despair, nervousness, alcohol use and suicidality amongst LGBTQ+employees, in comparison with non-LGBTQ+ employees.
Strengths and limitations
The authors spotlight a number of strengths of their assessment. The work was prospectively registered on PROSPERO and carried out in step with PRISMA pointers, which helps to make sure methodological transparency and minimise bias.
Importantly, the group made an try and seek the advice of with LGBTQ+ people on the conceptualisation stage, which is a constructive step in the direction of grounding the assessment in neighborhood views and making certain that terminology and scope had been applicable; although extra element may have been offered on how this public involvement helped share the design of the research. Whereas session with LGBTQ+ stakeholders was restricted to the early levels, the willingness to embed co-design parts in any respect remains to be notable in a subject the place such practices are hardly ever tried.
The authors acknowledge a number of limitations. First the findings had been summarised narratively, which limits the energy of the conclusions. Additionally they observe that the vast majority of research had been cross-sectional, offering solely a snapshot of the prevalence or comparisons, limiting our means to attract doubtlessly causal inferences.
One other limitation is the uneven concentrate on occupational teams, with a big proportion of research analyzing intercourse employees and solely a small quantity on different professions corresponding to healthcare, training, or emergency companies. Lastly, the authors spotlight that excluding navy populations, whereas methodologically justified, leaves out an essential occupational group the place psychological well being dangers are identified to be excessive.
It is very important spotlight that the assessment additionally displays the truth that analysis on this space remains to be at a really early stage. Solely half of the included research supplied any comparability with heterosexual or cisgender employees, which makes it exhausting to quantify the size of the disparity. Even amongst these with comparators, the proof is unfold thinly throughout international locations and occupations.
We can’t but say whether or not the upper dangers noticed in, for instance, US healthcare employees or Australian emergency companies employees would look the identical in different settings. The restriction to English-language research provides one other layer of uncertainty, particularly since lots of the international locations the place same-sex relationships are criminalised – and the place dangers to LGBTQ+ employees could also be even higher – are absent from the proof base.
Taken collectively, these limitations remind us that that is an rising proof base: the findings are essential and regarding, however they’re finest understood as the beginning of a analysis agenda.
The assessment was nicely carried out and designed with some LGBTQ+ neighborhood enter, however there have been important gaps within the distribution of occupational populations and geographic areas studied, suggesting the proof base stays underdeveloped.
Implications for analysis and apply
Solely half of the included research in contrast LGBTQ+ employees with heterosexual or cisgender colleagues, and most had been small, cross-sectional, and concentrated in sure teams corresponding to intercourse employees. With out constant comparisons, prevalence figures lack context so future analysis ought to purpose to ascertain the size of disparities extra systematically.
As captured by Talen Wright within the 2021Â Psychological Elf Weblog, microaggressions amongst trans individuals can critically hurt psychological well being. Future office research ought to seize these day-to-day stressors alongside medical diagnoses and self-reported psychological well being outcomes.
Early session with LGBTQ+ stakeholders must grow to be the norm, however stays skinny on the bottom, with latest criticisms being levelled at UK analysis and stories that ostensibly have an effect on LGBTQ+ communities themselves, e.g. the Cass Report (Noone et al, 2025). Meaningfully co-designed analysis will assist make sure that analysis questions and outcomes mirror actual office issues, not simply medical classes.
Though the proof base is uneven, the proof to this point signifies a transparent want for motion at work: strengthening anti-discrimination insurance policies and offering seen managerial help and focused psychological well being sources for high-risk teams.
Within the UK, whereas there’s a authorized framework in place, together with the Equality Act and enhanced harassment legal guidelines, insurance policies usually fall brief in apply. Many workplaces nonetheless lack specific protections or inclusive initiatives. The place structured steerage exists, like from Thoughts, ACAS, or NHS management, it provides sturdy fashions, however uptake varies extensively.
Coverage doesn’t at all times translate into tradition, apply, or authorized security for LGBTQ+ employees; highlighting actual gaps between what ought to and what actually occurs at work day-to-day. One-off range workshops danger being performative and significant change comes when management accountability, structural insurance policies, and intersectional consciousness are embedded into office tradition.
From the Equality Act to NHS inclusion frameworks, the UK has buildings to help LGBTQ+ employees, however we have to transfer from coverage on paper to supporting individuals in office apply, particularly when rollbacks of rights are evident.
Assertion of pursuits
I’ve no competing pursuits to declare.
Hyperlinks
Major paper
Tomic, S., Carlucci, M., Baiocco, R., & Fiorillo, A. (2025). Psychological well being of LGBTQ+ employees: A scientific assessment. BMC Psychiatry, 25, 129. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-025-06556-2
Different references
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Improvement. (2021). Inclusion at work: Views on LGBT+ working lives. CIPD.
LGBT Well being and Wellbeing. (2021). Trans individuals and work: Survey report (PDF).
Noone C, Southgate A, Ashman A, Quinn É, Comer D, Shrewsbury D, Ashley F, Hartland J, Paschedag J, Gilmore J, Kennedy N, Woolley TE, Heath R, Biskupovic Goulding R, Simpson V, Kiely E, Coll S, White M, Grijseels DM, Ouafik M, McLamore Q. Critically appraising the Cass Report: methodological flaws and unsupported claims. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2025 Might 10;25(1):128. doi: 10.1186/s12874-025-02581-7. PMID: 40348955; PMCID: PMC12065279.
Stonewall. (2025, January). New analysis exhibits virtually 40% of LGBTQ+ workers nonetheless disguise their id at work.
The Delight and Management Report. (2025). LGBTQ+ profession obstacles within the UK.Â
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