Make a Referral to Open Doors

What can Open Doors do?​

Open Doors provides individual support, counselling, and groups for young people who are:

  1. Aged between 12 to 24
  2. LGBTIQAP+
  3. Located in South East Queensland

Open Doors has a range of programs with different eligibility criteria that can provide varying levels of support. You can see a list of our available programs, what they do and their eligibility criteria here. 

Unfortunately there are number of services that we are not resourced to provide, and referrals we receive seeking services beyond our scope will be declined.

It is important to us that LGBTIQ young people get to the right service to receive the right type of support when they need it, so please read the information below before submitting a referral.

Please visit out FAQ page to find answers to your questions about what we do, and visit our resources page for alternative services 

Services Open Doors Can Provide
Services Open Doors Cannot Provide
  • Crisis intervention or support 
  • Support for young people aged under 12 or aged over 25
  • Gender affirming medical treatment  
  • GP referrals to specialist medical services  
  • Drop in services 
  • Emergency housing or accommodation 
  • Psychological assessments or services 
  • Family counselling 
  • Acute, severe and complex mental health care 
  • Long term counselling  
  • Diagnostic services 
  • Mentoring 
  • Mental Health care plans 
  • Cover costs of medical transition
  •  Access to or cover cost of specialised or custom gender affirming items

If you have a support need that we cannot meet, visit our resources page for a list of services that can meet your need.

If you are looking for care from these services, you do not need to make a referral to Open Doors. Please make a referral directly to these services

Is a referral to Open Doors really needed?

Open Doors is currently experiencing a very high demand for our services, but it is important to us that LGBTIQ young people receive the care and support that they need. 

We know that there is a lack of LGBTIQ specialist services, but often a referral to a specialist service is not required, but rather other general youth organisations, programs and support staff can meet these support needs of LGBTIQ young people themselves.

The types of support that other youth services can provide to LGBTIQ young people without a referral to Open Doors include: 

  • Referral to a LGBTIQ affirming GP  
  • Assisting access to the Gender Services (GP referrals are required)  
  • Advocacy 
  • Support accessing safe and affordable housing  
  • Referrals to trans inclusive health care  
  • Support social transitioning 

Organisations, services and support staff can increase their competence and confidence in working with LGBTIQ young people by engaging in our training and education program. 

Parents and carers of LGBTIQ young people can access our parents and carers group without needing a referral, please see the details here.

What happens after a referral is made?

While Open Doors is not a crisis service, we do prioritise referrals where more urgent support is required.   

We attempt to contact everyone as quickly as possible, however due the large number of people contacting us for support you may be waiting before you hear from us depending on how urgent your support needs are.   If your referral is not of an urgent nature you may need to wait longer to be contacted and offered an intake appointment. 

The sooner you respond to our contact attempts the quicker we can process your referral.  If you do not respond to three attempted contacts, you will be removed from our referral list and we will not follow you up. You can re-refer at any time. Please check your email junk folder for any communications from us and to protect your privacy Open Doors will often call from a private phone number.  

When we contact you, you may be asked to complete a screening call to determine your level of priority, eligibility and suitability for our service. If suitable, you then will be invited to attend an in-depth intake appointment which may be several weeks after your screening call depending on appointment availability. 

If you do not turn up to your scheduled intake appointment without contacting us to reschedule you will be removed from our referral list and we will not follow you up. 

After you have completed your intake appointment you will received information about how to access our groups and meet with your youth worker. Information on how to access our groups will not be provided until after an intake is completed. 

You can help your referral move more smoothly and quickly by:

  • Giving us clear information about your support needs and what type of support you are looking for
  • Responding to our attempts to contact you (please check your email junk folder)
  • Booking in your intake appointment when you are sent a booking link
  • Turn up to your intake appointment when it is booked

Find support while you are waiting

For LGBTIQ support while you are waiting to hear from us, please contact QLife, the national LGBTIQ helpline on 1800 184 527 between 3pm and midnight or visit our resources page  

Still need to make a referral? Please complete our online referral form below.

New Referral Wait Time: 2 weeks

Make a Referral to Open Doors

If you are having difficulties submitting a referral using our online referral from, please first clear your browser cookies and cache or fill out in a different browser.

If your challenges persist contact us on  referrals@opendoors.net.au with details of the referral and we will be in touch to complete your referral details.