57H - Creating a Gender-Affirming Care Program With the Transgender Community

Tuesday, March 21

2:00–3:00 p.m.

Fifteen states are currently enacting or considering laws that prohibit gender-affirming healthcare treatments, impose penalties on healthcare professionals who provide that care and seek to charge parents of transgender youth with child abuse. These developments make 2022 a record-breaking year for legislation that endangers the health and well-being of transgender and nonbinary people.

It is more important than ever for healthcare providers to demonstrate their support for gender-affirming care,. Keck Medicine of USC has been on a four-year journey to examine the transgender health landscape and identify opportunities to create a holistic and comprehensive program for this community. While Keck Medicine is not first to market with these services, it launched a highly participative and community-oriented approach to program development in 2018 to ensure that its gender-affirming care program is designed with the transgender community it serves.

This session will highlight key steps of the Keck Medicine journey to launching its gender-affirming care services. Attendees will explore steps of the four-year program creation; discuss the strategic collaboration with the TransLatin@ Coalition, a local trans-led organization, to ensure that medical care and mental health services are developed using a social and economic justice lens; and receive an overview of the holistic scope of primary care, surgical care and whole-person care being provided, including hormone therapy, plastic surgery, fertility services, gynecologic care, STI testing and treatment, HIV care and prevention, psychiatry, urologic care, voice therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy.

Learning Objectives

• Hear lessons learned from a four-year journey of developing a holistic, gender-affirming healthcare program.
• Communicate the imperative role community organizations play in ensuring that gender-affirming healthcare offerings are developed with the transgender community.