The Maryland Department of Health is launching a new program with national suicide prevention nonprofit The Trevor Project to improve care for LGBTQ+ youth.
The ‘Train the Trainer’ program is the first of its kind in the country, said Keygan Miller, the Trevor Project’s public training manager.
“It's really unique to bring in an organization like the Trevor Project to work with a government agency and really do this work,” they said.
Miller has been hosting virtual and in-person training sessions with Maryland educators and health care providers for the past year through the Office of Suicide Prevention. But the new ‘Train the Trainer’ project will allow for “exponential growth.”
“We're going to be starting with a cohort of 25 people from all different parts of the state of Maryland,” Miller said. “And we're gonna train them on ally training and care training so that they can go back to their departments, their school districts and give these trainings. So hopefully exponentially increasing the amount of people who are receiving these.”
Miller gave a taste of what participants will be learning — and learning how to teach others — at an in-person conference at Anne Arundel Community College on Tuesday.
“Pronoun use is suicide prevention,” they told a group of 30 attendees. “When someone's pronouns were used most or all of the time, their suicide attempt rate was half of the rate of those whose pronouns weren't respected.”
In the course of an hour, participants defined key identity terms, dispelled misconceptions about queer youth, and brainstormed actionable ways to be an ally.
Those selected for the first ‘Train the Trainer’ cohort in September will deep-dive into this material and more in a two-day intensive session. Then, they will be tasked with hosting at least two trainings of their own in their local communities.
“If I have 25 trainers, who then each train 50 people, and then those 50 people have interactions with three young people, that's a huge impact that we could be making,” Miller said. “One of the biggest things that we know from our research is that accepting adults really make a difference in the lives of LGBTQ young people and their mental health.”
Miller said that queer youth aged 13-24 are four times more likely to consider suicide than their peers. In Maryland, 11.4% of heterosexual high schoolers reported seriously considering suicide last year. Nearly 40% of gay high schoolers said the same. The Trevor Project found those numbers to be even higher for transgender and nonbinary youth, with close to half seriously considering suicide.
“Now, I don't want you to think that LGBTQ youth are inherently prone to suicide risk because of who they are,” Miller said at Tuesday’s training. “It’s not about who they are, but rather about the experiences that they have in society — that stigma, that mistreatment that we've experienced.”
Close to 70% of queer youth in Maryland said they’ve faced discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender, according to the Trevor Project’s recent report. Only 32% considered their home an affirming space.
Miller said having an accepting adult reduces the likelihood of a queer teen attempting suicide by 40% nationwide.
“So given that, how do we build a community of affirming and accepting adults?” Miller said. “A lot of that is a gap in education. We are talking about people who just have never been exposed to LGBTQ identities, who might have questions but have never had a space to ask those questions.”
Young Coffman is a community health organizer at My Life Foundation in Catonsville, an organization that provides behavioral and mental health services for local Asian American communities. She attended Tuesday’s training in Anne Arundel County.
“LGBTQ is something totally away from Eastern culture,” Coffman said. “I realize that my ignorance on this field and how I communicate normally may be not suited for these groups. I'm updating my way of thinking.”
Coffman said she didn’t know what pronouns were or how to use them before the session.
“And I know now I'm educated and willing to learn more and clear the picture a little bit for myself,” she said.
Miller recognizes that most of these trainings will only reach people who want to be better and learn more.
“There's also work to be done amongst communities that are spreading misconceptions, but that's gonna be a lot harder to break into than the work that we're doing,” they said. “These people are just like, ‘I don't know. But I'd like to know.’ And if we can start there, we can get the vast majority of the population on onboard.”
Miller said the Trevor Project is hoping to expand the ‘Train the Trainer’ program to other states in coming years. But for the next three years at least, Maryland will be leading the way.
