This fact sheet describes common social and legal needs that affect the health of transgender individuals, and ways integrated legal services can help meet those needs. It examines medical-legal partnership programs at three health care organizations and how they operate, and it shares stories of people benefiting from medical-legal partnership services.
Learning Resources — Filtered by Topic
Caring for Transgender People with Severe Mental Illness
Transgender people, like the general population, can suffer from a variety of common and rare severe mental health illnesses (SMI). This brief will cover recommendations on caring for this high-risk population.
- Filed under
- Behavioral Health
- Transgender Health
Providing Affirmative Care for Patients with Non-binary Gender Identities
All members of a health care organization—front-line staff members, clinicians, and administrators—play a crucial role in offering an inclusive, affirming experience for all people, including those with non-binary gender identities. Everyone, no matter their gender identity or expression, appreciates friendly, courteous, and effective care. In addition, non-binary people, who have gender identities other than male or female, have unique needs when interacting with the health care system. Non-binary people face numerous health disparities as well as stigma, discrimination, and a lack of access to quality care. However, you do not need to specialize in non-binary health care to give your non-binary patients an affirming experience.
Understanding the Health Needs of LGBT People
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals continue to face stigma and discrimination even though social acceptance is improving. This stigma and discrimination can result in negative experiences that combine with lack of access to culturally-affirming and informed health professionals to result in multiple health disparities for LGBT populations. Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide inclusive, high-quality health services to LGBT people so they can achieve the highest possible level of health. This document reviews LGBT concepts and demographics, discusses health disparities affecting LGBT groups, and outlines steps that clinicians, health centers, and other health care organizations can take to provide patient-centered care for LGBT people.
- Filed under
- Introduction to LGBTQIA+ Health
Transgender Women and Pre-exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention: What We Know and What We Still Need to Know
The National Center for Innovation in HIV Care
Transgender women are at elevated risk of becoming infected with HIV. Pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention (PrEP) is effective in reducing the risk of HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM), heterosexual men and women, and people who inject drugs (PWID). While transgender women have been included in some clinical trials of PrEP, no study has shown PrEP to be effective in reducing transgender women’s HIV risk.
Atención afirmativa para personas transgénero y de género no conformista: Mejores prácticas para el personal de atención médica de primera línea
Front-line staff play a key role in creating a health care environment that responds to the needs of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people. Everyone, no matter their gender identity or expression, appreciates friendly and courteous service. In addition, TGD people have unique needs when interacting with the health care system. Many TGD people experience stigma and discrimination in their daily lives, including when seeking health care.
- Filed under
- Transgender Health
Improving the Health Care of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) People: Understanding and Eliminating Health Disparities
This document offers a brief but comprehensive overview of the major issues relevant to the health and health care of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The authors discuss LGBT demographics, terminology, and concepts; they also review LGBT health disparities across the life span. Clinicians and health care organizations will learn steps they can take to improve access to patient-centered care for their LGBT patients, including collecting data on sexual orientation and gender identity, creating a welcoming environment and providing interventions that respond to LGBT disparities.
- Filed under
- Introduction to LGBTQIA+ Health
The Fenway Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health, 2nd Edition
American College of Physicians (ACP), 2015. Editors: Harvey Makadon, MD, Jennifer Potter, MD, Kenneth Mayer, MD and Hilary Goldhammer, MS of the Fenway Institute, Fenway Health
This new 2nd edition of The Fenway Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health reflects clinical and social changes since the publication of the first edition.
Written by leading experts in the field of LGBT health in conjunction with The Fenway Institute at Fenway Health, this edition continues to present the important issues facing patients and practitioners, including:
- Principles for taking an LGBT-inclusive health history
- Caring for LGBTQ youth, families, and older adults
- Behavioral Health Care: coming out, intimate partner violence, drug, alcohol, and tobacco use
- Understanding health care needs of transgender people
- Development of gender identity in children and adolescents
- Sexual health and HIV prevention
- Policy and legal issues
For more information and to order copies: ACP Online
- Filed under
- Introduction to LGBTQIA+ Health
