In this focus group we'll be having a chat about your experiences in accessing healthcare after having gone through the gender identity services pathway. We'll be talking about how you have found accessing healthcare, whether thats gender affirming treatments or more general healthcare, when you are no longer actively under the care of the GIC. So, you may want to attend this focus group if:
- you have experience(s) of needing to be re-referred to a gender identity clinic, due to changing your mind about what gender affirming interventions you want to access
- you have experience(s) of needing to access healthcare related in some way to gender affirming care you have received in the past - such as a complication from a surgical intervention, or gynaecology services
- you have experience(s) of accessing healthcare unrelated to gender affirming care you have received in the past - but you found that this was impacted in some way by your trans status/history, or the fact you have previously received gender affirming care
We won't need to go into detail about the medical treatment you've received, but will talk about how the experience was for you. We're interested in hearing about what made accessing healthcare more difficult for you, but also about when things worked well and you had a good experience!
This focus group is being held to help feed in the voices of people with lived experience into the Gender Identity Healthcare Service Standards being developed by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.
We know that the importance of accessing good healthcare doesn’t stop just because you no longer (currently) need to access gender affirming care. The standards will include a focus on “continuity of care”, and what people should be able to expect in the long term.
What is discussed in the focus group will be fed back to Healthcare Improvement Scotland, policy makers and NHS staff (including staff working at gender identity clinics) to make sure the standards are shaped by trans and non-binary people’s experiences. This will be done confidentially and no information will be shared that could identify you.
The focus group will run on Thursday 10th August at 6-8pm. The focus group will last for 2 hours and take place online via Microsoft Teams. If you have accessibility requirements please get in touch with Ryan (ryan@equality-network.org).
We will run additional focus groups if we have enough interest, so if you are only able to book a waiting list ticket, we will be in touch about other potential dates