Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Social Work

Advisor

Dr. Jeanna Jacobsen

Abstract

Gender variant people experience a variety of health concerns for which they seek the assistance of healthcare providers. These concerns may range from chronic health conditions and psychological disorders to gender affirming concerns. Due to living in a heteronormative society, gender variant individuals are more susceptible to experiencing stigmatization, discrimination, and other forms of unfair treatment while accessing healthcare services, which contributes to poor health outcomes. This treatment may be attributed to the lack of knowledge, competency, and training of healthcare providers as it relates to trans-inclusive care. Grounded in minority stress theory and intersectionality theory, the purpose of this study was to explore how gender variant individuals conceptualize trans-inclusive service delivery. A generic qualitative research design was used to explore how nine gender variant individuals defined trans-inclusive service delivery as well as to determine how inclusivity may be present within the healthcare setting. The findings from this research suggested that gender variant individuals defined inclusive service delivery by the presence of the following: representation, validation of identity, language and behavior, medical knowledge, and accessibility of resources. The results from this study may contribute to promoting the need for policy changes to remove systemic barriers and other forms of discriminatory practices within healthcare that impacts gender variant populations and their overall healthcare experiences as well as to provide information to assist in advocacy and encourage training-specific courses that may help improve the standard of care for gender variant populations.

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