Ground-breaking survey in Wyo. seeks to improve healthcare for bisexual, gay men – Jackson Hole News&Guide
You can’t treat what you don’t understand.
That’s the driving force behind a new behavioral health assessment, put forth by the Waller Hall Research Center based in Greybull, according to the center’s president, Jeff Henne.
“With much of our work, we come from the perspective that you can’t design programs in a void. I mean, you can, but then you never know if they’re really effective,” Henne told the Jackson Hole Daily.
“But if you gather information first, and you know what a community needs, then you can better design programs that meet those needs.”
Himself a gay man, Henne said a new online survey — one of the first of its kind in the equality state — will help Wyoming and its LGBTQ advocacy groups better understand the health needs of a key demographic.
Wyoming men 18 and older who identify as gay, queer, bisexual, pansexual, or transgender, as well as those men who sometimes have sex with other men, are asked to answer a series of online questions about substance use, suicidal ideation, HIV transmission and access to care.
If men in Wyoming mirror the rest of the country, those healthcare needs are likely elevated, Henne said.
“But we don’t know until we do it, right?” he said.
Waller Hall Research is partnering with the Wyoming Health Department and Wyoming Equality — a non-profit promoting LGBTQ resources and equality — to offer the survey.
Henne estimates there could be 10,000 gay and bi men in Wyoming if state demographics are consistent with national numbers. He’s hopeful at least three percent of those men (300 to 400 people) will take the survey.