Legal, financial and employment difficulties
Situational distress factors
Situational distress refers to specific life events and everyday challenges to our survival that can impact our feelings and thoughts of suicide. For example, legal, financial and employment difficulties.
Unemployment can be a significant crisis event for LGBTQ+ people. There can also be significant barriers for people in our communities gaining or maintaining employment.
While some people in LGBTQ+ communities earn comparable wages to the general population, many are still marginalised from entering the workforce because of their gender, sexuality, disability, education level, housing circumstances, and lack of equitable access to education and training opportunities.
Work environments that aren’t inclusive and affirming can have a huge impact on our health and wellbeing.
Finding employers that are inclusive and affirming to LGBTQ+ workers, and offer supportive policies, such as gender affirmation leave, anti-racist action plans, and a commitment to First Nations Truth-telling and Treaty, can be a good starting point in searching for job opportunities.
Learning how to manage finances, find free or affordable legal support and what your rights are can also reduce the stress around employment.
Resources
- Yilbara | The Yilabara mission is “to increase economic independence for Aboriginal people through improved access to vocational education and training (VET) and sustainable employment”.
- Inner City Legal Centre| ICLC provides a statewide legal advice service for the LGBTIQ community.
- ACCESS Program: Women’s and Girls Emergency Centre (wagec.org.au) | ACCESS is a free personalised mentoring program developed by Women’s and Girls’ Emergency Centre to support you to identify your strengths, build self-confidence and set goals for the future. This service is inclusive of trans women.
- Pride in Diversity | Equality in the Workplace (prideinclusionprograms.com.au) | Pride in Diversity is the national not-for-profit employer support program for LGBTQ workplace inclusion specialising in HR, organisational change and workplace diversity.
- Pride In Health + Wellbeing | LGBTQ Inclusive Service Delivery | Pride in Health + Wellbeing is a national membership program that provides year-round personalised support to organisations within the Health, Wellbeing and Humans services sector to improve their LGBTQ inclusive care, remove systematic barriers to accessing care and thereby reduce health disparities faced by LGBTQ communities.
- Fitted For Work | Fitted for Work helps Australian women experiencing disadvantage get work, keep work and strive at work.
- Sydney | Dress for Success Sydney | Dress for Success seeks to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. Regional locations include Wollongong and Newcastle.
- Financial Independence Hub – Good Shepherd | A free and confidential service supporting people who have experienced financial abuse to feel more confident with money and plan for the future.
- embrace your otherness | Castle | For over 30 years, Castle has helped people with disabilities, mental health conditions, chronic illnesses and injuries find work and live meaningful lives.