Mental health service experiences regarding sexual orientation: Relations with demographics, depression, and suicidality among queer adults.

Queer people experience high rates of depression and suicidality and are more likely to seek and use mental health services compared to heterosexual people. Few studies have investigated how mental health service experiences regarding sexual orientation and satisfaction/dissatisfaction with these services may be related to demographic characteristics and mental health outcomes among queer people. A national sample of 500 queer adults (Mage = 33.7, SD = 10.0; 60% female; 86% cisgender) in the United States completed an online survey that measured demographic characteristics, depressive symptoms, suicidal outcomes (ideation, planning, and attempts), mental health service experience about sexual orientation, and degree of helpfulness/unhelpfulness of these services. Results showed 39% of participants had talked with a mental health professional about their sexual orientation. Among those, 58% found the experience to be helpful to some degree, 24% found the experience to be unhelpful to some degree, and 18% found the experience neither unhelpful nor helpful. Regression results indicate that compared to individuals who had never talked with a mental health professional about their sexual orientation, those who had an unhelpful experience reported slightly higher levels of depressive symptoms, were nearly three times more likely to have seriously considered suicide, and were nearly four times more likely to have attempted suicide. Lack of education and training for mental health professionals about queer-specific issues, experiences, language, and affirmative practice may contribute to unhelpful experiences. Improvements in training, services, and policies are needed so that service use is helpful and not associated with elevated depression and suicidality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).