MHM Magazine

INTRODUCTION In October 2022, OUT-LGBT Well- Being secured financing for a cutting- edge initiative, the Bazwa Mental Health Programme. The objective of this programme is to increase understanding and knowledge about mental health, address the issue of internalised homophobia, reduce feelings of depression and anxiety, and prevent suicide among individuals in the LGBT community between the ages of 10 and 24. The study uses a dual approach The main approach is to collectively develop and assess a WhatsApp platform for LGBT youth, using an artificial intelligence (AI) 'bot' as a guide to improve their access to mental health services and resources, both online and offline. The available resources consist of a virtual mentor, supervised chat groups for support, information and suggestions for mental health services, offline support groups for acquiring life skills and psychosocial abilities, in-person or online therapy sessions with a psychologist, as well as a suicide/panic button and a link to suicide prevention hotlines. The second approach entails the execution of a family peer support programme specifically customised for parents and guardians of LGBT youth. The programme met with challenges in implementing these approaches. While the recruitment and retention of LGBT youth was not plain sailing, our attempts to engage parents and guardians of LGBT youth, with a view to establishing a family peer support group, were even more difficult to achieve. This article provides an account of our experiences and insights gained during the challenging process of recruiting parents and guardians of LGBT young people. It aims to offer valuable guidance to practitioners who may undertake similar endeavours in the future. UNDERSTANDING OUR PROGRAMME PHASES Our programme is structured in three broad phases: • Set-up • Implementation • Close-out Recruiting parents and guardians for LGBT youth was one of many deliverables in the set-up phase. With the wisdom of hindsight, I think our experience cautions that a high level of enthusiasm to get a novel idea funded may easily lead to an overly ambitious scope of deliverables. Our lofty goal was to recruit family peers within the first three months of the programme's launch, in addition to achieving the main objectives of the set-up phase, which included establishing the WhatsApp chatbot and recruiting young LGBT. We soon learnt that even though OUT-LGBT Well-Being had invested 30 years of work within the community, we have not specifically engaged in the domain of advocacy towards parents or guardians of LGBT youth and concluded that usual our methods of recruitment won’t ‘cut it’. METHODS OF RECRUITMENT Initially, we implemented a tripartite strategy for recruiting participants for the family peer support group: • We collaborated with By Dr. Olusegun Odumosu Project Lead Grand Challenges Canada, OUT LGBT Well-being MD, MPH COLLABORATIVE LINKAGES WITH BUDDING LGBT SUPPORT GROUPS IN ENGAGING PARENTS OF LGBT YOUNG PEOPLE: A CASE STUDY OF THE BAZWA MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMME MHM | 2024 | Volume 11 | Issue 4 | Collaborative linkages with budding LGBT support groups in engaging parents of LGBT young people: a case study of the Bazwa Mental Health Programme MHM Issue 4 | 2024 | MENTA HEALTH MATTERS | 25 MHM