Mental Health Service Availability and Utilization Among LGBTQ+ Youth in Nairobi’s Slums: A Service Availability Survey Protocol

LGBTQ+ youth in Nairobi’s slums face significant mental health challenges due to discrimination, stigma, and limited access to services. A mixed-methods approach including a structured survey of healthcare facilities and semi-structured interviews with LGBTQ+ youth to evaluate service provision and usage patterns. Findings indicate that only 30% of surveyed facilities offer specific mental health services for LGBTQ+ youth, despite a reported need of 60% among young respondents. Interviews revealed common barriers such as confidentiality concerns and outdated curricula in training healthcare providers. The service availability survey highlights significant gaps in specialized care for this marginalized population, underscoring the necessity for tailored interventions to improve mental health outcomes. Develop culturally sensitive mental health programmes, increase funding for LGBTQ+ youth services, and integrate comprehensive sexuality education into healthcare curricula. LGBTQ+, Mental Health Services, Service Availability, Nairobi Slums Treatment effect was estimated with $\text{logit}(p_i)=\beta_0+\beta^\top X_i$, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.