A little over a month ago, In August 2022, a statewide interdisciplinary group of mental health professionals specializing in gender-affirming care sent a press release stating their challenges to the Department of Social Services Husky’s recently revised gender-affirming health care policies. .
We were surprised and shocked when we saw some of the content reported on September 8 Connecticut Health Research Group Or C-HIT.org in the Mirror article, “Access, insurance remain barriers to gender-affirming surgery in CT.
While the article addresses some of the barriers to gender-based care in Connecticut, this group of providers hurt readers by omitting concerns raised in an Aug. 17 press release that outlined additional barriers for Husky clients at DSS. View letters supporting requests for care from mental health providers for gender-affirming care.
Our concern begins with the experts mentioned in the article. All of the citations are white cisgender professionals reporting on trans care; The reporter did not consult any known gender service providers in this state.
Because few providers have participated in Fenway’s Trans Echo, there is concern within our medical professional group about what training should be considered professional.National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center) or sought outside training in transgender care. The experts mentioned had the opportunity to encourage the reporter to seek the opinion of the health care providers about these policies, and they did not do so. As a group of LGBTQIA+ gender-sensitive health care providers, who recently distributed the DSS/Husky policies to all media outlets in Connecticut, none of us were contacted.
In addition, the article supports DSS’s actions, not to mention their oversight of recent policy changes that create barriers for those seeking gender-affirming care on Medicaid. In addition, there is no mention of barriers to Medicaid clients who don’t have thousands of dollars, and are not allowed to pay out-of-pocket for care that Connecticut providers don’t or won’t provide. Accept payment Husky.
As our team met over the past few days to review and discuss this article, we also took issue with the article’s neglect of bodily autonomy. According to Dr. AJ Eckert, Medical Director of Anchor Health’s Gender and Life-Affirmative Medicine Program, “The story…the mental health model is the narrative of care for trans people as a standard-of-care model. Harmful and out of date for many years. In fact, Laura Sanders, a psychologist cited in your article, cites mental health letters but dismisses their gatekeeping qualities because “sometimes they provide guidance in a very perverse environment.
Autonomy is not a dark subject. The need for bodily autonomy is not a mental health pathology. Individuals are not forced to enter therapy, let alone talk to another psychiatric provider, to confirm who they are. Authentication is an internal process. Letters are invasive, expensive, time consuming and completely unnecessary. The only “approval” should be based on the person’s consent and initial medical ability to undergo the required procedure, just as a patient would undergo any other type of surgical procedure.
The article states, “Medicare, Husky and many other insurance companies from World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)”, however, DSS in Connecticut has implemented laws that are not proven or supported by the best recommendations or guidelines.
There is growing evidence that gender-affirming surgery can alleviate mental health concerns. Exacerbating mental health conditions is increasing barriers to surgery. To tell the full story about access to health care for transgender and non-binary people, the Mirror needs to expose the issues we’ve listed.
Alison D. Platt, LPC/LMHC on behalf of: Alexandra Solomon, LCSW; Molly Conley, PsyD; Lauren Millard, LCSW; Kaity Protos, DSW, LCSW; Laura S. Dodge, LCSW; Rebecca Toner, LCPC; and Sarah A. Gilbert, LCSW.
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