Policy, Practice and People: Current Issues Affecting Clinical Practice

This commentary highlights current policy issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the US with implications for mental and behavioral health care and social work services. These issues include conversion or reparative therapies, especially for young people, and conscience clauses that may exempt some students and practitioners from serving LGBTQ people and their families. While not a "policy" per se, emerging knowledge about health disparities that affect LGBTQ people will also be summarized because of its relevance to practice; many of these concern mental health and behavioral health. Finally, some resources for making health care organizations more responsive to the needs of LGBT people are identified.