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Approach to the provision of transgender health care in a veteran population

Transgender patients often experience health disparities, including higher rates of psychiatric comorbidity, tobacco and substance use disorders, higher suicide risk, and reduced access and initiation of medical and mental health services. In 2011, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care...

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Autores principales: Kaigle, Allie, Sawan-Garcia, Ranya, Firek, Anthony
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: College of Psychiatric & Neurologic Pharmacists 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6007524/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29955520
http://dx.doi.org/10.9740/mhc.2017.07.176
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author Kaigle, Allie
Sawan-Garcia, Ranya
Firek, Anthony
author_facet Kaigle, Allie
Sawan-Garcia, Ranya
Firek, Anthony
author_sort Kaigle, Allie
collection PubMed
description Transgender patients often experience health disparities, including higher rates of psychiatric comorbidity, tobacco and substance use disorders, higher suicide risk, and reduced access and initiation of medical and mental health services. In 2011, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system released a directive outlining the provision of transgender health care services. Since 2011, the number of transgender veterans seeking services has increased. To address these health care disparities and ensure competent comprehensive medical and mental health care for this population, an interprofessional team collaborated to develop the first formalized Transgender Healthcare Clinic at the VA Loma Linda Medical Center. The team consisted of an endocrinologist, primary care provider, clinical pharmacist, psychologist, and social worker. Each member of the team plays a key role in the management of mental and medical health care for transgender veterans. After implementation of the Transgender Healthcare Clinic and its respective model for appointments, access to gender transition–related health care has improved and expanded. Although the role of the clinical pharmacist is well established in this clinic, the addition of a psychiatric pharmacist to the transgender health care team could improve patient care through the integration of an expert understanding of behavioral and pharmacologic aspects facing transgender individuals. The psychiatric pharmacist is trained with the unique skill set required to address these concerns and facilitate the optimal management of co-occurring mental illnesses commonly seen in this patient population. Further research focusing on the integration of psychiatric pharmacists into transgender health care teams is needed.
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spelling pubmed-60075242018-06-28 Approach to the provision of transgender health care in a veteran population Kaigle, Allie Sawan-Garcia, Ranya Firek, Anthony Ment Health Clin The Transgender Population Transgender patients often experience health disparities, including higher rates of psychiatric comorbidity, tobacco and substance use disorders, higher suicide risk, and reduced access and initiation of medical and mental health services. In 2011, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system released a directive outlining the provision of transgender health care services. Since 2011, the number of transgender veterans seeking services has increased. To address these health care disparities and ensure competent comprehensive medical and mental health care for this population, an interprofessional team collaborated to develop the first formalized Transgender Healthcare Clinic at the VA Loma Linda Medical Center. The team consisted of an endocrinologist, primary care provider, clinical pharmacist, psychologist, and social worker. Each member of the team plays a key role in the management of mental and medical health care for transgender veterans. After implementation of the Transgender Healthcare Clinic and its respective model for appointments, access to gender transition–related health care has improved and expanded. Although the role of the clinical pharmacist is well established in this clinic, the addition of a psychiatric pharmacist to the transgender health care team could improve patient care through the integration of an expert understanding of behavioral and pharmacologic aspects facing transgender individuals. The psychiatric pharmacist is trained with the unique skill set required to address these concerns and facilitate the optimal management of co-occurring mental illnesses commonly seen in this patient population. Further research focusing on the integration of psychiatric pharmacists into transgender health care teams is needed. College of Psychiatric & Neurologic Pharmacists 2018-03-26 /pmc/articles/PMC6007524/ /pubmed/29955520 http://dx.doi.org/10.9740/mhc.2017.07.176 Text en © 2017 CPNP. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle The Transgender Population
Kaigle, Allie
Sawan-Garcia, Ranya
Firek, Anthony
Approach to the provision of transgender health care in a veteran population
title Approach to the provision of transgender health care in a veteran population
title_full Approach to the provision of transgender health care in a veteran population
title_fullStr Approach to the provision of transgender health care in a veteran population
title_full_unstemmed Approach to the provision of transgender health care in a veteran population
title_short Approach to the provision of transgender health care in a veteran population
title_sort approach to the provision of transgender health care in a veteran population
topic The Transgender Population
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6007524/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29955520
http://dx.doi.org/10.9740/mhc.2017.07.176
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