Challenges
Despite numerous attempts to eliminate biased attitudes, transgender people still face different challenges that deteriorate the results of treatment. The first barrier is the discrimination that is still observed in multiple health facilities. Both patients and health workers might demonstrate inappropriate behaviors towards people who decided to alter their sex. It might trigger an outburst of aggressive emotions or unwillingness to remain in the same room with transgender people (Watkinson & Sunderland, 2017). Statistics also show that discriminative attitudes and behaviors result in the significant postponement of care provided to this very group of people (Watkinson & Sunderland, 2017). Averagely, transgender people wait twice longer than other patients. It results from the lack of their states understanding and inability to remain tolerant.
Another significant barrier this group of patients faces in modern healthcare is the inadequate education and training among healthcare specialists. The fact is that numerous health issues peculiar to transgender people demand unusual care and procedures (Watkinson & Sunderland, 2017). However, a significant part of workers does not possess the knowledge needed to attain appropriate results. Moreover, the lack of training opportunities for the staff contributes to the creation of situations in which specialists do not know how to behave and treat patients.
Finally, almost all transgender people have to engage in problematic, uncomfortable, and intolerant interactions with health workers and other patients. These appear because of the otherness of this category and the low level of their needs awareness peculiar to the modern society (Watkinson & Sunderland, 2017). All these factors have a pernicious impact on the health of this group of patients. Moreover, they might precondition the emergence of new problems regarding the relations between transgender people and other individuals within the healthcare sector.
Discrimination and Transgender Community
The existence of multiple barriers within the healthcare sector has a significant impact on the transgender community. First, it decreases the level of trust in health workers and repels community members from using care services. It becomes a critical problem as disregard of diverse aspects might significantly deteriorate the state of the health of the transgender community and precondition a significant decrease in the quality of these peoples lives (Bradford, Reisner, Honnold, & Xavier, 2013). At the same time, the unwillingness to visit hospitals increases the gap between caregivers and transgenders. It negatively affects the transgender community and their relations with society.
Another problem arising from healthcare providers discriminative behaviors is the development of depression among this category of patients and their refusal to live a full life. For instance, the question of pregnancy is one of the most disputable issues associated with transgender people (Bradford et al., 2013). People and health workers unwillingness to accept this fact precondition drastic alterations in moods and the growth in the number of suicides among transgenders (Bradford et al., 2013). Moreover, high depression levels can be explained by these patients exclusion of traditional forms of discourse and the creation of biased attitudes toward them.
Transgender people also experience numerous problems with employment because of their discrimination by caregivers. The inability to acquire appropriate care significantly decreases the level of performance and minimizes the opportunity to find a good job. By the statistics, the level of transgender peoples incomes is much lower if compare with other patients (Bradford et al., 2013). It negatively impacts the evolution of the transgender community and reduces its members chances to integrate with the traditional society, create families, and engage intolerant or friendly relations with other individuals.
Program
One of the central causes of the emergence and development of discriminative behaviors towards transgender people is the lack of protection and their vague status. At the moment, almost all health care plans are not covered for transition-related care (Safer et al., 2016). Additionally, the government does not provide clear instructions or recommendations on how to work with this category. For this reason, medical professionals are not able to apply for health care subsidies or guarantee the appropriate delivery of care (Safer et al., 2016).
With this in mind, the program aimed at the reconsideration of the given problem on the state level should be initiated. It is central to create the legal framework that monitors the state of transgender people, assesses their needs, and guarantees all need services. The elaboration of the given approach should be accomplished regarding the existing problems these patients face and drawbacks in knowledge peculiar to health workers (Safer et al., 2016). That is why both transgenders and healthcare specialists should be engaged in the process of new policy creation.
Its central aspects should touch upon additional training for specialists and the appropriate code of conduct that should be recommended for all healthcare facilities in the state. The lack of preparedness and knowledge about how to provide care to this category are fundamental barriers transgender people face (Safer et al., 2016). For this reason, the suggested program should be focused on educating health workers on how to behave and work. Moreover, it should cultivate tolerant cooperation with transgender people by emphasizing the impossibility of discrimination and biased attitudes in modern society. Finally, to guarantee this category included in the life of communities, employers should be stimulated to create job opportunities and hire representatives of this group. Only under these conditions, some progress can be achieved.
References
Bradford, J., Reisner, S., Honnold, J., & Xavier, J. (2013). Experiences of transgender-related discrimination and implications for health: Results from the Virginia transgender health initiative study. American Journal of Public Health, 103(10), 1820-1829.
Safer, J., Coleman, E., Feldman, J., Garofalo, R., Hembree, W., Radix, A., & Sevelius, J. (2016). Barriers to health care for transgender individuals. Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity, 23(2), 168-171.
Watkinson, D., & Sunderland, C. (2017). How discrimination affects access to healthcare for transgender people. Nursing Times, 113(4), 36-39.