Introduction: Mental and behavioral health professional organizations use their governing documents to set expectations of provider competence in working with LGBTQ+ clients.
Method: The codes of ethics and training program accreditation guidelines of nine mental and behavioral health disciplines (n=16) were analyzed using template analysis.
Results: Coding resulted in fives themes: mission and values, direct practice, clinician education, culturally competent professional development, and advocacy. Expectations for provider competency vary greatly across disciplines.
Conclusion: Having a mental and behavioral health workforce that is uniformly competent in meeting the unique needs of LGBTQ populations is key for supporting the mental and behavioral health of LGBTQ persons.This work was supported by the University of Maryland Prevention Research Center cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (grant U48DP006382). N.D.W. also acknowledges support from the Southern Regional Education Board and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholars Program. J.N.F. also acknowledges support from the Maryland Population Research Center, by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant P2CHD041041). This work does not expressly represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
