Addressing the suicide rate among gay and bisexual men in BC: An assessment of policy solutions

Suicide has been identified by the BC Ministry of Health as a key issue in its Mental Health and Substance Use strategies, and gender and sexual minorities have been identified as target populations in regard to this issue. Suicide among gay and bisexual men (GBM) in particular is four times higher than among the general population and as of 2007 has exceeded HIV as a leading cause of death for GBM. This capstone employs qualitative interviews grounded in intersectionality and syndemic theory to understand suicide among GBM, and to generate a multi-pronged policy approach composed of 4 key recommendations supported by specific action items. Using an adapted form of Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis (Hankivsky et al., 2014), these recommendations are analyzed to identify how they succeed in meeting key policy objectives, while also highlighting key challenges and next steps.