$bp global values changing when I move code to a class

I am creating my own subnav menu by looping over the bp_options_nav object inside the $bp global.

something along the lines of:

$subnavs = $bp->bp_options_nav[$parent];

I then check if user has access to it and if they do output it like this:

foreach ($subnavs as $item)

{

if ($item['user_has_access'])

{

// my output code

}

}

This works great when I add it directly into a template file like profile.php but I don’t want to have it copied into every file, I want it to be centralised.

When I call my code on the template from a class like so:

mynamespacebudddyhelp::my_function('profile');

The $bp global now only shows I have access to public subnavs.

Inside my function I have tried doing:

global $bp

and

$bp = buddypress();

But its same story either way. I read that I shouldn’t pass the $bp object as a reference parameter but I am a bit confused here. It seems to be changing values based on scope. I am not sure how that is happening.

How can I get the correct values of the $bp global inside my helper function?