Program & Abstracts

Currently, representation of 2slgbtqia+ communities as Educators, particularly Educators in Ontario Catholic Schools, is almost non-existent. Much has to do with past harms done by the Catholic Church, and a continuous flow of misinformation perpetuated by parents, administrators, school boards, and trustees. Fortunately, the Ontario English Catholic Teacher's Association has recognized a major gap between the diversity of people who attend our schools and those who teach in them. With the implementation of a Diversity Advisory Board, and the election of a provincial VP of Equity as well as equity positions on Local Executives, OECTA has made it a priority to create and support more inclusive spaces for 2slgbtqia+ members and repair past harms done to the communities by the Catholic School System. These changes are largely member driven and passed as resolutions at the Annual General Meeting. Workgroups, Committees, Local executives and the Provincial Executive work collaboratively to review and revise current policy in the Handbook to update the Association’s approach to accessibility, inclusion, diversity, and equity. From these avenues, initiatives like the Diverse Voices Series, Mini-Courses, Web Experiences, Conferences and Workshops aim to address the fear and challenges faced by 2slgbtqia+ and intersectional teachers, and aim to build, educate, and mobilize a support network of allies within the system. As a result, Queer teachers are more likely to “come out” and talk about their families, partners, and interests in Association spaces, however we still struggle to get engagement from the overall membership and we are constantly having to fight misinformation that moves faster than the development of the resources needed to counter it. We need Queer young workers to engage in their unions, speak out in solidarity, and share their stories. Queer joy in teaching is essential for job satisfaction and longevity. Ensuring that the experience for new 2slgbtqia+ teachers is positive, continuing to develop safe school policy, advocating for political support, and countering misinformation to motivate the current shift in attitude towards 2slgbtqia+ communities will be critical elements in the fight to ensure visibility, safety and inclusivity in traditionally discriminating spaces like the Catholic School System. This work, though challenging, fosters hope for 2slgbtqia+ students, and will ultimately allow them to see space for themselves as future educators in the Ontario Catholic Public School system.

Background:
Gender diverse individuals are diagnosed with Autism or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) substantially increased, and express autistic traits (communication or executive function challenges) at a rate far greater than their cisgender and allistic peers. At the intersection of two vulnerable groups, those with Gender and Neuro-Minority (GNM) identities experience compounding stressors (e.g., minority stress, camouflaging behaviors) relating to their intersecting and marginalized GNM identities, with GNM individuals experiencing higher rates of bullying and victimization than those with only one identity. Consequently, GND individuals report increased rates of depression and anxiety diagnoses compared to their allistic counterparts. GND individuals are three times more likely to attempt suicide and twice as likely to experience suicidal ideation compared to cisgender and allistic individuals.  While GNM individuals’ experiences have started to gain research attention globally, there remains a paucity of research into the experiences, barriers and needs of GNM community within the Canadian context.

Objectives:
To more fully understand GNM Canadians, the impact of minority stress and pathways to resilience, the Neurodiversity Paradigm (NdP) demands a community developed strengths-based approach responsive of the emancipatory community actions calls for personal agency and depathologization.

Methods or approach:
To address this need. Neuro Queeriosity (NQ) cross-sectional multiple method survey reflects on the qualitative and quantitative experiences of (n=332) GNM Canadians between the ages of 16 and 70 years of age, this approach facilitated both gathering a broad rigorous sample of the Canadian, but also the space for nuanced experiences of community and advocacy. This study explores how non-affirmation, and concealment impact the mental well-being of GNM people in Canada. How pride, community connectedness and advocacy impact the mental well-being GNM people in Canada. What are the experiences of engaging with the community and advocacy for GNM individuals? And how do these findings translate to social work best practices in supporting GNM individuals, education and research?

Key results and insight:
While data is currently being analyzed initial findings indicate an essential need for affirmative mental health support for GNM individuals with 5% of participants falling into likely to be well, 15% in the likely to experience mild disorder, 23% in the moderate range and 57% falling into severe disorder category on the Keller Psychological Distress Scale.  73% of participants scored 6 or over on the Autism Quotient 10 (AQ-10) suggesting the presence of significant autistic traits.

Background: In many West African countries, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual, and other sexual and gender minorities (LGBTQIA+) navigate environments marked by systemic discrimination, conversion practices, legal precarity, social erasure, and high rates of identity-based violence and stigma, which is often intensified by political hostility. Such atmospheres exacerbate psychological distress and make access to affirming mental health care both limited and inherently risky.

Objectives: This presentation is a case study of the clinical experiences of three licensed psychotherapists practicing in an Anglophone West African context. Their goal was to promote the mental wellbeing of LGBTQIA+ clients whose distress was often caused or compounded by identity-based violence, unlawful arrests, religious distress, social exclusion, systemic discrimination, interpersonal trauma, and moral injury, through the delivery of culturally responsive and affirming psychotherapeutic services. The presentation therefore aims to demonstrate how the therapists adapted and decolonized psychotherapeutic modalities to treat and protect LGBTQIA+ clients in hostile sociopolitical environments.

Methods: The therapists provided individual and group therapy to LGBTQIA+ clients through an integrated, trauma-informed and trauma-focused model that incorporated approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), AFFIRM Adult, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), person-centred therapy, integrative therapy, and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). They also integrated trauma-informed care, minority stress theory, and human rights-informed frameworks within a decolonized orientation into these interventions to centre clients' holistic wellbeing, autonomy, and safety needs. The therapists also partnered with queer-led organizations to enhance community trust and situate clinical relationships within protective networks. Additionally, they offered remote services on secure digital platforms to overcome logistical, social, and clinical barriers. Interventions were adapted to local language, metaphors, and cultural contexts, with collaborative treatment planning, flexible scheduling, and ongoing rapport-building.

Insights: These adaptations blended ethical care, cultural responsiveness, and technological flexibility to provide high-quality, evidence-based trauma care to marginalized populations in resource-constrained, high-risk settings. While each intervention and framework has strong empirical support, the integration of these approaches in West African queer contexts represents a grassroots innovation, as they have neither been systematically developed nor empirically tested. The therapists positioned themselves as advocates rather than passive allies by co-creating safer therapeutic spaces that functioned as "digital sanctuaries."

Implications: This presentation shows that effective, ethical, and affirming trauma care is possible even in hostile and low-resource settings when treatments are carefully adapted to fit the lived realities of marginalized communities. It also contributes to global conversations on mental health that centres the safety, resilience, and affirming care for SGM in West Africa. Additionally, it challenges mental health professionals to move beyond political neutrality and embrace justice-oriented, advocacy-informed approaches that actively push back against the homophobic norms that contribute to the trauma of SGM.

Background

In Canada, 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals often face disparities and discrimination when accessing healthcare on a systemic and personal level. These disparities often lead to poorer health outcomes for 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, highlighting a clear need for efforts to reduce inequities (Comeau et al., 2023). A factor often identified as a contributor to these disparities is the lack of education that healthcare workers receive about providing safe and affirming care to this population. We feel it is highly important to prioritize implementing inclusive and up-to-date education for students in healthcare to help bridge the current gap in our healthcare system.

Objectives

In an effort to educate students in a community nursing course on the provision of affirming, inclusive care, Globally Networked Learning (GNL) and Virtual Simulation were used as tools to connect nursing students across the world. The goal of utilizing GNL was to create a new way to encourage students to engage with the learning material while gaining invaluable experience collaborating with peers to broaden their own horizons, challenge stereotypes, and improve their cultural humility.

Methods

In a collaboration between a Canadian University and a University in Hong Kong, students completed an assignment centered around care for individuals with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. The assignment involved students completing a series of virtual simulations involving the provision of affirming care, followed by reflections on the application of the skills they learned in the simulations on their current placements focused on Community Health. Students then shared their work with their peers abroad and wrote another reflection on their experiences collaborating.

Key Results

Using an auto-ethnographic approach to reflect on their experiences, nursing students identified the overwhelmingly positive and multifaceted effects GNL had on their learning. The experience gave the students a unique opportunity to not only learn about providing affirming care to 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, but also the importance of international collaboration and the impact it has on the development of cultural humility as healthcare professionals. Students also reported that the addition of international collaboration to the assignment increased their engagement with the assignment and fostered a sense of excitement to be connecting with peers internationally.

Implications/Impacts

The primary objective of our study is to increase awareness of the need to improve healthcare professionals' education regarding providing safe and affirming care, and providing the education in a unique format that teaches students the value of international collaboration. The participating students were also able to highlight areas for advocacy surrounding mandates for adequate education of healthcare professionals in 2SLGBTQIA+ care.

Background. Schools can be protective spaces for healthy gender minority adolescent (GMA) development. For lack of robust policies, interventions, and social support to protect GMA, GMA face minority stressors and barriers to education in the United States. GMA-protective policies (e.g., nondiscrimination, antibullying) have been linked to reduced minority stress exposure and mental health risk. However, at a time of increased hostility to GMA educational protections, particularly under the second Trump Administration, protective policies and interventions are at risk of community pressure and de-implementation.

Objectives. This study sought to understand how schools and school social workers anticipate and respond to threats to transgender educational rights in a state that lacks robust protections.

Methods. Via snowball sampling in professional networks, 11 school social workers holding MSWs and working in Michigan consented to participate. Participants were mostly women (n=9) and identified as White (n=5), Latina (n=3), and three other racial minority groups (n=3). Participants completed 1-2 hour-long semi-structured interviews and returned forms on demographics, school characteristics, and a school policies checklist. Two co-coders used a thematic analysis approach to dataset familiarization, theme development, and coding. Complexity of the theme “backlash” warranted focused analysis. Backlash experiences were extracted and analyzed using the Framework Method to explore and compare backlash antecedents, forms, and outcomes.

Results. Interviewees anticipated and experienced backlash to GMA-protective policies and interventions. Antecedents frequently involved parents, students, or community members learning of a policy or resource, such as a school permitting name changes without parent permission. Backlash took the form of interpersonal conflict (e.g., peer bullying), teacher refusals to implement policies, and parental/community advocacy with administration and school boards. Schools responded to backlash by publicly defending practices, discretely continuing practices, formalizing new procedures, and abandoning protections. Schools exhibited 5 response patterns. 1) Schools with written GMA-protective policies were better able to defend their practices as established school rules. 2) Schools anticipated risk of backlash by implementing policies discretely, complying in advance, and not writing policies down, in turn inducing uncertainty, and reduced preparation to defend against backlash. 3) Schools handled interpersonal conflict discretely and these forms of conflict generally did not lead to policy change. 4) External backlash from parents and community members induced policy clarification, variably to GMA benefit. And, 5) Administrator-controlled structures, like inclusive curriculum, were more centrally and effectively defended by administrative bodies.

Implications. Schools in the United States are facing increased pressure to de-implement GMA-protections. While attention has reasonably focused on school boards and administrators, social workers hold power in establishing and implementing policy. Findings indicate that schools can best defend GMA-protective practices when they have clearly articulated, written policies, such as name change, gender-neutral facility, and nondiscrimination policies, that specify rights to education equity. Efforts to systematically support school staff in adoption, implementation, and maintenance of GMA-protective policies and interventions in the face of opposition are needed. In context of an international movement opposed to transgender educational rights, structural interventions for the establishment and implementation of GMA-protective policy offers a needed defense against anti-transgender backlash.

Introduction
We present preliminary findings from a recent mixed-methods, community-engaged, participatory research project focused on understanding the role of artmaking in fostering wellness for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth (aged 18-30) in Scarborough, an eastern suburb in Toronto where a large proportion of the city’s racialized and immigrant population reside.

Methods
This SSHRC-funded research study, which involved peer researchers with deep community ties to our participants and community, employed a mixed-method approach consisting of participant observation, arts-based focus groups, and one-on-one interviews with 20 queer Scarborough-based youth, the majority of which self-identified as queer people of colour.

Results
Our research found that arts-based practices play a vital role in supporting, and often improving, the overall mental health and well-being of queer youth of colour in Scarborough. Our findings address the complexities and nuances that come with working with queer of colour youth whose intersectional identities are often under-looked or wholly erased within dominant discussions around LGBTQIA+ health and wellness.
While the project initially began in close collaboration with a local arts organization, our work and working relationships took unexpected turns that generated critical conversations around responsible academic-community partnerships, the non-profit industrial complex, and what it means to care for one another in the face of institutional harm. Our presentation contextualizes the qualitative results of our arts-health research with the realities of —and realizations occasioned by—its process, with the goal of sharing our sense of lessons learned for doing work in the arts-health space with 2SLGBTQIA+ youth.

Discussion
In addition to generating new insights into the role of arts engagement in facilitating 2SLGBTQIA+ youth wellness—the results of a comprehensive process of thematic analysis involving peer researchers, member checking, and queer-of-colour informed theoretical frameworks—our nearly three years of work generated additional insights into the doing of community-based research with and for queer and trans youth.
Academic research has been rightly criticized for its entanglement within and amplification of intersecting systems of oppression. Our study findings—alongside our personal experiences—derived from the process of conducting this research has encouraged us to consider how arts-health research, as a resource of vigilance and vision, can foster resiliency and creative capacity within shifting landscapes of oppression and resistance.

Conclusion
Our project prioritizes social wellness as an arts-led, community-strengthening practice that includes equity, access, belonging, and justice, with a particular focus on 2SLGBTQ+ youth of colour in the eastern GTA’s underserved community of Scarborough. Our research is fundamentally framed by the inequities of location including barriers to accessing existing resources located in downtown and a lack of queer community spaces and resources reflective of participants’ intersecting identities. The involvement of peer researchers, periodic member checking, and engagement with queer-of-colour theoretical frameworks ensured that our research practice was equitable and accountable to the queer youth of colour participants we worked with.

Background

Youth are the fastest-growing group of migrants in Canada, and resettling during adolescence presents unique social, cultural, and developmental challenges. At the same time, LGBTQIA+ youth experience disproportionately high rates of gender-based violence (GBV) across family, school, and community settings. These risks are further intensified for migrant youth, whose intersecting identities are often overlooked in research and under-supported in the non-profit landscape. As a result, there is a critical service and knowledge gap in understanding and addressing the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ migrant youth in Canada.

Objectives

This study formed a partnership between a community-based organization and two academic institutions. This study aims to generate comprehensive insights into the experiences of LGBTQIA+ migrant youth (aged 14–24) as they navigate Canadian society. It focuses on how intersecting identities—related to age, migration status, gender, and sexual orientation—shape their sense of safety, belonging, and identity formation, as well as their encounters with GBV. It also seeks to examine the strengths-based potential of community-engaged research and arts-based methods as tools for fostering connection, reflection, and empowerment.

Methods / Approach

This study uses an Arts-Based Engagement Ethnography (ABEE), integrating creative and participatory practices to support culturally-sensitive research with LGBTQIA+ migrant youth. Participants are first provided with a variety of art materials and dedicated time to engage in creative expression. During this process, they are guided by reflective prompts that encourage them to explore and represent their experiences related to identity, migration, relationships, and safety. Following this, participants take part in one semi-structured individual interview and two focus groups. These discussions build on the themes emerging from their artwork, allowing for deeper reflection, shared dialogue, and collective meaning-making. Participants are also invited to contribute to knowledge dissemination by showcasing their artwork in a public exhibit. This component creates opportunities for broader community engagement while amplifying participants’ stories.

Key Results / Insights

Findings highlight the complex challenges LGBTQIA+ migrant youth face, including navigating GBV, negotiating family and peer relationships, and managing the intersecting pressures of gender identity, sexual orientation, and migration. At the same time, strong themes of resilience, kinship, and community-building emerged. Arts-based engagement created spaces for participants to reflect critically on their experiences, fostering consciousness-raising around shared structural challenges. These processes also enabled connection, self-affirmation, and experiences of queer and trans joy, demonstrating the dual role of creative methods as both expressive and transformative.

Implications / Impacts

The study amplifies the voices of a frequently underrepresented population and offers important insights for research, policy, and practice. Findings support the development of more inclusive settlement services, GBV prevention strategies, and youth programming that address intersecting identities. Methodologically, the study demonstrates how arts-based approaches can function as powerful tools for consciousness-raising, community-building, and participant empowerment, particularly among marginalized youth. By highlighting both structural inequities and the importance of care and joy, the study contributes to efforts to combat rising anti-LGBTQIA+ and anti-immigrant sentiments, while promoting more inclusive environments in Canadian society.

Background
LGBTQIA+ migrant students in post-secondary education face intersecting forms of marginalization, rooted in migration status, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) which significantly compromise their mental well-being and sense of belonging. Existing research shows that LGBTQIA+ migrants experience increased discrimination and violence pre-migration because of their SOGIESC. They may simultaneously experience rejection from their own ethnic communities after arriving in their newly settled countries. LGBTQIA+ migrants may also experience barriers related to social integration, access to stable employment, income, and housing compared to cisgender, heterosexual, white, and non-migrant people. This is further complicated by stigma due to migration status, language and barriers to mental well-being associated with stressors of acculturation. Despite growing recognition of these challenges in a Canadian context, there is a significant gap in understanding how LGBTQIA+ migrant college and university students navigate belonging and well-being within academic and community environments.

Objectives
This study addresses that gap by examining the experiences of LGBTQIA+ migrant college and university students regarding belonging and well-being. Specifically, the study aims to examine the factors shaping students’ sense of belonging and mental well-being in post-secondary education, understand how a sense of belonging and/or a lack thereof impacts mental well-being, and identify strategies that may enhance and/or hinder LGBTQIA+ migrant students’ sense of belonging and resilience.

Methods or approach
The study uses a participatory mixed-method research design utilizing arts-based approaches combining an online survey with photovoice focus groups. Photovoice sessions will take place throughout three meetings: orientation, photo sharing, and member checks. Participants are asked to capture between 8 to 10 photographs using their mobile phone or camera, based on prompts related to (1) the self, (2) belonging and representation at school, home, and society, and (3) thriving and resistance. Participants will select six photos (two from each theme) for the photo sharing phase. Focus group discussions are facilitated using the SHOWED method to facilitate conversation amongst participants, and the research team will be documenting emergent findings. Member checks are conducted, during which the research team presents emergent themes and participants are invited to evaluate and provide feedback on the accuracy of findings.

Key results or insights
This presentation will share the participatory process and emerging insights regarding how LGBTQIA+ migrant students understand belonging, exclusion, safety, affirmation, and resistance in post-secondary settings. It will focus on how students describe navigating institutional environments, LGBTQIA+ campus spaces, and broader social contexts shaped by migration, race, ethnicity, and gender and sexual diversity. The research team will also present insights from integrating survey and art-based methods in community-engaged research with LGBTQIA+ migrant student populations.

Implications or impacts
This project centers LGBTQIA+ migrant students as knowledge holders and active co-interpreters of their own experiences. A Community Advisory Board comprising students, academics, policymakers, and members of the LGBTQIA+ migrant student community will support the co-production of evidence. Findings will inform strategies to enhance resilience and belonging and will be disseminated through deliberative dialogue, open-access publication, and national webinars.

Background

Racialized, migrant, and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities face intersecting structural inequities that shape mental health outcomes and limit access to culturally affirming supports (Crenshaw, 1991; Meyer, 2003). For queer and trans Bangladeshi communities in Toronto, these inequities are intensified by migration stress, Islamophobia, intra‑community stigma, and the collective trauma associated with political instability in Bangladesh (Khan, 2022). Arts‑based, community‑led interventions, particularly those situated in public spaces, have demonstrated potential to strengthen resilience, belonging, and collective well‑being (White, 2010; Sonn et al., 2018).

Shopner Mela (Festival of Dreams), organized by Bangladeshi Queer Liberation (BQL), is funded through the Toronto Arts Council (TAC) and Toronto Arts in the Parks / Animating Toronto Parks, an equity‑driven public funding program designed to support free, accessible arts programming in neighbourhood parks outside Toronto’s downtown core (Toronto Arts Council, 2017, 2024).

Objectives

This presentation analyzes Shopner Mela as a culturally grounded, publicly funded arts‑based model of mental health promotion and knowledge mobilization. This presentation presents Shopner Mela as an implementation case study of a culturally grounded, publicly funded arts‑based model of mental health promotion and community care, with a focus on knowledge mobilization and transferability. Objectives are to:
- Examine how TAC‑funded park‑based cultural programming can function as collective care infrastructure for queer and trans Bangladeshi communities;
- Illustrate community co‑design and participatory arts as non‑clinical pathways to mental health and resilience; and
- Contribute practice‑based insights relevant to service integration, intersectionality, and culturally responsive community mental health.
- Translate these insights into a practical knowledge mobilization toolkit relevant to researchers, practitioners, funders, and community partners.

Methods / Approach

Using a participatory action research and arts‑based implementation framework (Kindon et al., 2007), BQL co‑designed Shopner Mela with artists, organizers, and community members. Programmatic elements such as live performance, participatory textile art, oral history, community dance, and queer South Asian film screenings, were intentionally selected as low‑barrier, non‑clinical modalities of mental health support.
Implementation data informing this case study include organizer field notes, program documentation, accessibility checklists, partnership agreements, and reflective community debriefs. These materials are synthesized into a draft knowledge mobilization toolkit, outlining steps for park activation, multilingual engagement, accessibility planning, arts funding navigation, and community co‑design (Leavy, 2015).

Key Results / Insights (Anticipated)

Based on evidence from comparable studies, Shopner Mela is expected to function as a temporary infrastructure of care, fostering psychosocial safety, belonging, and collective meaning‑making. Arts‑based community festivals have been shown to strengthen social cohesion and well‑being among racialized and LGBTQ+ communities, particularly when culturally specific and participatory (Sonn et al., 2018; White, 2010).
Research on queer and migrant‑focused arts programming suggests that storytelling, embodied performance, and collective art‑making can reduce isolation and affirm identity without reproducing stigma associated with formal mental health services (Meyer, 2003; Leavy, 2015). Publicly funded park‑based arts programs further demonstrate increased cultural access, intergenerational engagement, and perceived community well‑being, particularly in neighbourhoods outside urban cores (Toronto Arts Council, 2017).

Implications

Participants will leave with:
- A concrete implementation case study illustrating how arts funding, public space, and community organizing intersect to support community mental health;
- A transferable knowledge mobilization toolkit outlining practical steps, design principles, and partnership strategies;
- Actionable insights into how non‑traditional modalities such as festivals, textiles, storytelling, and film, can enhance engagement, learning, and impact in equity‑seeking communities.

This presentation contributes to research, policy, and practice by positioning arts‑based community festivals as scalable, culturally grounded models for collective mental health and resilience. It underscores the role of equity‑oriented arts funding in advancing culturally grounded mental health promotion and community resilience. This work contributes to social work, public health, and community psychology by reframing mental health as a collective, cultural, and political practice rooted in joy, resistance, and care.

References
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
Khan, S. (2022). Sexuality, citizenship, and belonging in South Asian diasporas. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 43(3), 345–360.
Kindon, S., Pain, R., & Kesby, M. (2007). Participatory action research approaches and methods. Routledge.
Leavy, P. (2015). Method meets art: Arts‑based research practice (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Meyer, I. H. (2003). Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations. Psychological Bulletin, 129(5), 674–697.
Sonn, C. C., Baker, A., & Drew, N. (2018). Creating inclusive and empowering spaces: Community arts as a vehicle for well‑being. Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 4(2), 1–19.
Toronto Arts Council. (2017). Toronto Arts Council equity framework. https://torontoartscouncil.org/equity-framework
Toronto Arts Council. (2024). Animating Toronto Parks: Grant program overview. https://torontoartscouncil.org/grant-programs/tac-grants/animating-toronto-parks
White, M. (2010). Arts development in community health: A social tonic. Radical Statistics, 103, 9–21.

Background (what problem or gap are you highlighting and why is it important?)

To improve access to evidence-based care, well-established anxiety treatments like cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) can be delivered face-to-face over videoconferencing software like Zoom. Access to efficacious treatment is important for LGBTQ+ populations given that recent estimates indicate that anxiety disorders occur for LGBTQ+ people at approximately two times the rate of the general population. However, most clinical trials of CBT either do not include or do not report on their samples’ LGBTQ+ identification. Given the high rate of secondary disorder co-occurrence in anxiety disorders, there is a need for transdiagnostic CBT, which can simultaneously treat multiple concerns by focussing on common underlying mechanisms. However, types of standard transdiagnostic CBT, such as the Unified Protocol (UP), have not been evaluated for LGBTQ+ people in the research, with only limited and early LGBTQ+ adapted versions being investigated. This indicates a need to understand whether videoconferencing-delivered, standard transdiagnostic CBT for anxiety disorders is effective and acceptable for LGBTQ+ people. Therefore, this presentation outlines the early findings of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) investigating the efficacy and acceptability of videoconferencing-delivered transdiagnostic standard CBT for anxiety disorders in LGBTQ+ people when compared to a waitlist group.

Methods or approach (what specific activities took place to address the objectives, inclusive of creative/innovative approaches?)

This trial recruited 52 LGBTQ+ adults who met criteria for a primary anxiety disorder. Participants were randomised to either an immediate treatment group, or a control group. The immediate group received eight weekly individual therapist-delivered sessions of videoconferencing-delivered, transdiagnostic CBT, based on the Unified Protocol (UP). Participants randomised to the control group completed an eight-week waitlist period. Symptom severity and diagnostic status was assessed at baseline, post-treatment, and three-month follow-up. Effect sizes were calculated based on Cohen’s d using the pooled standard deviation across the sample and estimated marginal means. Post-treatment participant qualitative interviews were analysed using content analysis.

Key results or insights (what was learned as a result of the activities?)

Thirty-four adults have completed post-treatment, with twenty-one at three-month follow-up, and nine qualitative participants. Early results show large pre-treatment to post-treatment effect sizes (g = 1.38; 95% CI: [0.74, 2.03]) and large pre-treatment to follow-up effect sizes (g = 1.36; 95% CI: 0.66, 2.06]). Large between-group post-treatment effect sizes were found (g = .91; 95% CI: [0.28, 1.55]). On quantitative acceptability measures, all participants would recommend the treatment to others with similar symptoms. Qualitatively, overall participants indicated standard transdiagnostic CBT was acceptable, with some suggested modifications to the protocol. Key quotes illustrating participant experiences will be outlined around eight categories; motivations for seeking treatment, treatment expectations, videoconferencing format, quantity of treatment received, CBT components (including structure and homework), perceived mechanisms of change, therapeutic alliance, and overall evaluation of the treatment. Results will be updated prior to presentation.

Implications or impacts (how could the learning be applied and what are the key audience takeaways, learning outcomes, or contributions to research, policy, and/or practice, inclusive of creative/innovative engagement strategies?)

The early results appear promising, and with a fully powered sample, would indicate that standard transdiagnostic CBT may be a viable intervention for LGBTQ+ adults with anxiety disorders. Participant feedback indicates several modifications to treatment content and quantity. Larger trials may be indicated to compare the efficacy of standard transdiagnostic CBT protocols to LGBTQ+ adapted CBT protocols.