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Queer Support Through COVID-19
Queer LifeSpace’s (QLS) mission is to create a safe space for the Queer community and our allies. Our client-centered integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment is designed to empower, inform and provide a platform for healing and growth. Operating in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro District, we have been a pillar of critical mental health services to Queer folk in the Bay Area and beyond.
Although we are grateful for our City and State’s leadership in instituting a crucial early shelter in place, these measures impacted the queer community in devastating ways. LGBTQQIANB2S community members disproportionately make up a number of service and entertainment industry professionals, as well as the majority of our QLS clients. Prior to this crisis, our community was woefully under-compensated and underinsured, and more likely to have mental health needs as a result. This crisis highlights the need for continuity of services to our clients, while simultaneously cutting off their means to afford these already deeply discounted services. As an organization, QLS pledges to continue serving our clients during this crisis, via HIPAA compliant telehealth platforms, offering individual and group (gay disability, substance recovery, gender spectrum, queer women’s support, queer men’s relationships) counseling options to nearly 350 Queer community members in SF and the surrounding Bay Area. QLS will continue to employ and provide for our Queer staff’s health and well being in this uncertain time, but we need your help.
As a result of the COVID-19 crisis in the Bay Area, Queer LifeSpace has continued to see clients virtually but is receiving drastically reduced fees for service. We also have heard from clients who are unable to continue vital services because of a lack of resources. Additionally, our providers, who are members of the Queer community, face increased financial stress seeing clients on a deeper sliding scale than usual. Another major unexpected cost was the expansion of a HIPAA compliant telehealth platform. QLS has transitioned entirely to online services and incurred unexpected expenses procuring new technology as well as training providers on using this service. If these trends continue, without assistance, QLS may be forced to drastically scale back services to some of our most vulnerable clients.
We need your support today to continue to provide lifesaving mental health services to our Queer community members in need. Our community knows how to come together in the face of sickness more than most. For those that can, we ask for your support.
Check out this video to learn more about QLS #queersgetqueers
Although we are grateful for our City and State’s leadership in instituting a crucial early shelter in place, these measures impacted the queer community in devastating ways. LGBTQQIANB2S community members disproportionately make up a number of service and entertainment industry professionals, as well as the majority of our QLS clients. Prior to this crisis, our community was woefully under-compensated and underinsured, and more likely to have mental health needs as a result. This crisis highlights the need for continuity of services to our clients, while simultaneously cutting off their means to afford these already deeply discounted services. As an organization, QLS pledges to continue serving our clients during this crisis, via HIPAA compliant telehealth platforms, offering individual and group (gay disability, substance recovery, gender spectrum, queer women’s support, queer men’s relationships) counseling options to nearly 350 Queer community members in SF and the surrounding Bay Area. QLS will continue to employ and provide for our Queer staff’s health and well being in this uncertain time, but we need your help.
As a result of the COVID-19 crisis in the Bay Area, Queer LifeSpace has continued to see clients virtually but is receiving drastically reduced fees for service. We also have heard from clients who are unable to continue vital services because of a lack of resources. Additionally, our providers, who are members of the Queer community, face increased financial stress seeing clients on a deeper sliding scale than usual. Another major unexpected cost was the expansion of a HIPAA compliant telehealth platform. QLS has transitioned entirely to online services and incurred unexpected expenses procuring new technology as well as training providers on using this service. If these trends continue, without assistance, QLS may be forced to drastically scale back services to some of our most vulnerable clients.
We need your support today to continue to provide lifesaving mental health services to our Queer community members in need. Our community knows how to come together in the face of sickness more than most. For those that can, we ask for your support.
Check out this video to learn more about QLS #queersgetqueers
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