Held by the Mother Goddess: Working with Non-Binary Spiritual Leaders to Provide Early Mental Health

Held by the Mother Goddess: Working with Non-Binary Spiritual Leaders to Provide Early Mental Health Care and Referral for LGBTQ+ people in Vietnam.

The project aims to produce a novel, unique, and highly impactful interdisciplinary collaboration between a global health researcher and a medical anthropologist to study the potential for involving non-binary spiritual leaders, called Đồng cô, in delivering early care and referral for depression among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people in Vietnam. 

The study has the following objectives: 
• To elicit Đồng cô perspectives on depression among LGBTQ+ people. 
• To map Đồng cô resources and capabilities for providing early care and referral for depression in LGBTQ+ people. 
• To understand the contexts in which LGBTQ+ people seek help from Đồng cô. 

The research addresses a critical shortage of LGBTQ+ friendly care for depression in Vietnam. The project aims to act as a catalyst to discover novel avenues for bringing mental health care to a highly stigmatized population.