Trans Health Navigator pilot project changing lives
Just a few months into the Transgender Health Navigator research project and those involved are seeing positive results.
Drs. Megan Clark and Stéphanie Madill’s research within the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) focuses on improving health care services for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people in Saskatchewan. It is a community-led research project in partnership with the province's trans community, and involves putting supports in place to help members of the trans community navigate Saskatchewan’s health care system.
Clark and Madill secured a grant for this project from the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation and the Saskatchewan Centre for Patient-Oriented Research. However, Clark’s earlier support from the SHA’s Clinician Research Support Program laid an important foundation for the pilot project though grant-writing, literature reviews, and an environmental scan.
Two peer navigators have been hired now as part of this project, and are being piloted for 12 months. OUTSaskatoon is hosting Elijah as the Saskatoon-based peer health navigator, and UR Pride is hosting Ken in Regina. The Trans Health Navigators are part of the larger research project - Trans Research and Navigation Saskatchewan (TRANS) - which began in 2018 by the SaskatchewanTrans Health Coalition.
OUTSaskatoon and UR Pride are also providing community connections, expertise in service provision, and supervision.
“Our community partners provide the expertise and capacity for mobilization upon which the whole project depends,” explained Clark. “Lived experience and community connections are the most important expertise in this project.”
Over half of the research team identifies as 2SLGBTQ+. That lived experience is one of the reasons Madill was asked to co-lead this project; she has been involved in 2SLGBTQ+ activism for more than 30 years.
“I am lesbian and queer, and have personally experienced both difficulty finding health-care providers who were able to provide me with appropriate care, and discrimination from health-care providers,” she noted. “This work is important because adequate, safe, culturally-competent healthcare is essential for people to live their lives fully. It is very difficult to feel pride in oneself if one’s basic health-care needs are not being met, or when one needs to conceal parts of oneself to get needed care, or when one must tolerate bigotry and discrimination to get care.”
In the short time he has been in his role, these very barriers have been brought to Elijah’s attention.
“Accessing health-care facilities is one of those things that might be taken granted for some people because we’ve been taught that medical facilities are a safe space for anyone, but this isn’t always necessarily true,” he explained.
Since he began his role in April, Elijah says an incredible amount of people have been accessing the navigation service.
“The most powerful thing that I have noticed is the large number of people reaching out to us for information to better support their loved ones through an exciting, but stressful time,” he says. “It’s great to know our community members have so many caring people that just want to do the best that they can to support their loved ones.”
Madill says this project is a direct intervention that will help TGD people get the care they need, as well as help healthcare providers become more knowledgeable about treating TGD people.
“Our hope is that we will be able to make a very compelling case for continuing the navigator service permanently and increase cultural competence among healthcare providers, which should combine to reduce the healthcare disparities experienced by people who are TGD in our province.”
If you are looking for support, please contact: Ken – Regina & South: navigator.south@transsask.ca; Eli – Saskatoon & North: navigator.north@transsask.ca.
For more information, check out the research website: https://www.saskhealthauthority.ca/our-organization/our-direction/research.