Developing a Toolkit for Transgender and Gender Diverse- Affirming Health Communication: A Community-Based Participatory Research Partnership Approach
We know through research and conversations with members of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) communities that there are deficiencies in quality healthcare for TGD people compared to cisgender populations. Part of the reason for this deficiency in care is lower use of preventative healthcare, practices deemed by the medical establishment as routine, but that may be inaccessible and/or unknown to certain patients due to a number of factors including cultural norms/traditions, finances, or discrimination. For TGD persons, exclusion from these types of care may also be partially due to a lack of TGD-affirming health information. In other words, the majority of health information is made for cisgender audiences specifically and can be non-affirming for TGD people. This study is interested in better understanding the lived experiences of TGD people in the Central Great Plains. We are especially interested in learning about interactions with health information and how that may affect the use of western-medicine-defined preventative health care. Our goal is to better understand how people engage in preventative health care and use health information to help develop TGD-affirming health information and messaging.
This research is part of a National Institutes of Health funded study through Trans Collaborations, a community-based participatory research group based in Nebraska founded in 2014.
Research Team:
Nathan Woodruff - leader of local community board