Lecture
Watch time: 1 hour
Summary
Samira Karsiem and Dr. TJ Salway (Simon Fraser University) present MindMap BC, a free, community co-designed online directory that connects 2SLGBTQ+ people in British Columbia with affirming mental health practitioners across budgets, formats, and regions. Built over eight years through community partnerships and advisory groups, MindMap responds to the gap between high mental health needs and the shortage of affirming, affordable care, while modelling community-led health infrastructure.
Why This Matters
2SLGBTQ+ people face higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidality, yet hit major barriers to affirming care, including cost, location, and provider competency.
Many providers and social workers want to support 2SLGBTQ+ clients but lack trusted, up-to-date referral pathways, so people are left to navigate the system alone.
Community co-design, with advisory groups and lived-experience input, builds resources that reflect real and diverse community needs rather than assumptions.
Affirming care is evolving toward intersectional care that also accounts for race, disability, immigration status, and other parts of identity, not just sexual orientation and gender.
Free, community-vetted directories like MindMap BC are a form of health-equity infrastructure that should be sustained and replicated alongside clinical services.
Key Concepts
Affirming care: Mental health and medical practice that actively validates and supports a person's 2SLGBTQ+ identities, moving toward intersectional care that also includes race, disability, and other dimensions of identity.
Community advisory groups: Structured groups of community members, including people with lived experience, who guide tool development so it stays accountable and relevant to the people it serves.
MindMap BC: A free online directory (mindmapbc.ca) co-designed with community that connects 2SLGBTQ+ British Columbians with vetted, affirming mental health practitioners.
References
MindMap BC
A free 2SLGBTQ+ affirming mental health directory for British Columbia described throughout the talk, now managed by QMUNITY.
Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC)
National community-health organization whose survey work was cited as founding evidence for MindMap's development.
About the Speakers
Samira Karsiem is a researcher affiliated with MindMap BC and the REAFFIRM Collaborative at Simon Fraser University, focused on 2S/LGBTQ+-affirming mental health services. Dr. Travis Salway is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, a social epidemiologist focused on mental health inequities in sexual minority populations, and the founder of MindMapBC.
TJ Salway is a 2S/LGBTQ+ Health Hub network member and mentor. You can read more about TJ here.