Public health messaging catered to the general population might not be applicable to minority groups, such as those from different ethnic, cultural, gender, and sexual minority groups. These groups may have particular healthcare needs, that may go unaddressed in health messages catered to the public. The communication strategies employed to convey wellbeing messages has a significant impact on help-seeking behaviour, access to appropriate care and experiences in the healthcare system. This highlights the need to uncover effective ways to structure wellbeing messages for the LGBTQ+ community, particularly the parents. An editorial review was undertaken to identify the best practice and guidance for constructing effective health information messages to cater to the LGBTQ+ community.    

Key findings: 

• Ensure messages promote open and accepting forms of communication 
• Some routinely used terminology and practices can feel excluding to LGBTQ+ people
  
• Message creators should be culturally competent and open to learning from communities. They should allow the community to identify words which are salient to them
  
• Information should be tailored for specific groups, rather than assuming all LGBTQ+ people have the same information needs
  
• Once information has been tailored to community’s needs, a plan should be put in place to evaluate, review, and update the message content and terminology periodically 

Read the briefing paper here.