Wednesday, November 02, 2016

What We Need.

More hospitals are jumping on the band wagon… kind of.
More U.S. Hospitals Offering Gender-Affirming Surgeries
NBC News
By Dawn Ennis
October 31, 2016

A boon is underway at medical institutions from coast to coast, aimed at helping transgender Americans who suffer gender dysphoria because of the mismatch between their bodies and their gender identity.

Gender-transition services and surgeries are becoming more widely available across the nation, and more insurance companies are adding coverage to help the more than one million Americans who identify as transgender.

"Access to these treatments is lifesaving for many transgender people," said Kate Kendell, executive director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of the nation's strongest legal advocates for LGBTQ Americans. "The recent sea change among insurers and state Medicaid programs is long overdue, and we must be vigilant about protecting and expanding these protections."
Funny what happens when they realize that there is money to be made off us? Now that we are getting insurance coverage the medical community sees dollar signs.
"Access to these treatments is lifesaving for many transgender people," said Kate Kendell, executive director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of the nation's strongest legal advocates for LGBTQ Americans. "The recent sea change among insurers and state Medicaid programs is long overdue, and we must be vigilant about protecting and expanding these protections."
[…]
Even though not every transgender individual seeks or qualifies for surgery -- because of personal reasons, their health or insurance coverage -- demand is high. The increase in services has ramped-up since 2014, when the U.S. government's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services started covering transgender-related procedures, which have been indelicately called "sex change operations." A more common name is sex reassignment surgery, or SRS, and a more popular name within the trans community is gender confirmation surgery, or GCS.

"Despite the recent improvements in institutions offering these lifesaving transgender health services, there is still an unmet need for compassionate and comprehensive care," Goldstein told NBC News.
What we need is endocrinologists and surgeons.

I have been doing a number of trainings at hospitals around the state but doing training is one thing getting everyone on-board is another. I did a training at a hospital in the eastern part of the state last year and at another hospital I was on a focus group on how be trans inclusive, well since then I have heard of trans people being mistreated. In one hospital one medical tech person kept calling him “miss” even after he said something to her and in another hospital they fired an employee when she transitioned (and the hospital lost the case in federal court).

It is one thing to do training for the staff; it is another thing to put it into effect. You can’t just out a rainbow sticker up and call your facility “LGBT Friendly” you have to policies into place and enforce them, it has to be a top down approach. Management must be behind it.

Otherwise this will happen…
Mother sues Rady Children's for allegedly insensitive transgender care
The San Diego Union Tribune
By Paul Sisson
September 26, 2016


A Vista mother sued Rady Children’s Hospital in federal court Monday, alleging its workers broke the law when they repeatedly addressed her 14-year-old transgender son, Kyler Prescott, as a girl.

Katharine Prescott said Kyler was extremely distressed after being treated as a female patient, causing his psychiatrist to request that he be released only 24 hours into a 72-hour suicide hold at the hospital.
[…]
Prescott’s suit does not claim that Rady Children’s caused her son’s death, but it does accuse the region’s only children’s hospital of misrepresenting the capabilities of its Gender Management Clinic. Promises of sensitivity to transgender issues were not honored, Prescott said.

“I don’t call it malicious. I think it’s a complete lack of understanding and training. If you say you are trained to take care of transgender youths, you need to be able to do that. And if you’re unable to, it may have dire consequences,” Prescott said.
[…]
She said when the staff at Rady Children’s Hospital began treating her son as a girl, she objected over and over, escalating the matter to the charge nurse responsible for the ward where Kyle was admitted.

“Instead of handling the complaint, the charge nurse blocked my number so I was not able to call in to the floor,” Prescott said.
According to the Albuquerque Journal,
In the weeks before his death, Kyler had been treated for “suicidal ideation,” Katharine Prescott said: She had taken him to the emergency room at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, which has a Gender Management Clinic to treat children with gender dysphoria and other related issues.
It is a lot worst when you say you can but then don’t do it.

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