The list of gay-friendly therapists

Most of the participants in the focus groups and baseline survey said they would like to have access to a list of gay and gay-friendly health providers. In response, Dialogai used a rather clever method to create a list of gay-friendly therapists (general practitioners, specialized physicians, and psychotherapists) in 2004.  Pre-stamped postcards were distributed in major meeting places for gay men in Geneva asking them if they had gay-friendly therapists. Sending in the name of therapists on that postcard allowed them to take part in a prize drawing. This data collection method turned out to be quite a success. Each gay health provider whose name was sent in was then individually contacted to find out if they wanted to be on the list, their availability and their area of practice.

The first list of some 150 health care providers in Geneva and neighboring regions was created in 2004. The first year it was consulted by 200-odd people before stabilizing at around 100 people per year starting from 2010. The list canAnyone can be accessed  the list by calling Dialogai and Checkpoint.

RegardingFor requests for mental health professionals, an interview was often necessary to give information about different psycho-therapeutic approaches and pinpoint the best therapy for their problem as well as to clarify questions about reimbursement by health insurance companies.

Given that few spots were available with qualified psychiatrists reimbursed by health insurance companies and the majorgreat deal of work that is often neededecessary for quality guidance, we decided to send those seeking information to the new association in Geneva Trajectoires.  Created in 2004, it is meant specifically to guide people to the psychotherapies best-adapted to their suffering. This was how the Blues-out project dealt with mental health was dealt with in the Blues-out project up until Checkpoint started offering psychological care in 2015.