The part of the picture survey is online now at http://www.partofthepicture.co.uk, and teams of fully trained staff and volunteers are heading out to UK Pride events to survey the LGB community about their drinking habits and drug use - their next stop will be London Pride on 4 July.

The research is being carried out by The Lesbian and Gay Foundation in partnership with The International School for Communities, Rights and Inclusion at the University of Central Lancashire and has been funded by the Big Lottery Fund's Big Research Programme.

The research started on Saturday 23 May at Birmingham Pride. Helen Burdett, Substance Misuse Co-ordinator at the LGF said: "We had a really good response at Birmingham with over 200 questionnaires completed, which is a fantastic start to the 5 year programme. From speaking with members of the community and agencies, it appears that people are really keen to support this project and are interested in hearing about the findings, especially considering that LGB substance use is an area we have little hard evidence about."

The Part of the Picture research teams will also visit Newcastle Pride (18 July), Leeds Pride (2 August), Cornwall Pride (8 August) and Manchester Pride from 29 - 31 August.

It is envisaged that this research will shape the future provision of drug and alcohol services to ensure that they are inclusive of the needs of LGB people, as well as developing a national evidence database of drug and alcohol usage amongst LGB communities.

"Substance use is under-researched within these communities" says Christina Marriott, one of the research team from ISCRI. "The little existing research there is suggests that lesbian, gay and bisexual people may be at much higher risk of problematic substance use and drinking. Our pilot showed staggeringly high levels of problematic use and it is important we confirm or disprove these.

"We also found very different patterns of drug use to the general population. For example, poppers (the alkyl nitrates) were more widely used than cannabis and this is not true in any other community. This may suggest that the services to help people with substance misuse issues will fail most lesbian, gay and bisexual people - because they are based on a different pattern of use. We hope that, in providing a great evidence base, we can support agencies in meeting the needs of these communities."

The first wave of results will be known in the autumn, and will be passed on to drug and alcohol teams across the UK to advise them of LGB areas of need.

If you are lesbian, gay or bisexual and want your experiences of drug and alcohol use to help shape the future provision of services for LGB people; go to http://www.partofthepicture.co.uk and complete the survey.

For more information on Part of the Picture, contact: Helen Burdett, Tel: 0161 235 8026 Email: Helen.Burdett@lgf.org.uk