Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Research Scholarships - Master's program

Many Canadians use walk-in clinics as a source of primary care. In Canada, there are 2S/LGBTQI+ walk-in clinics for sexual and mental health, but none for primary care. This gap in services could seriously impact health outcomes for 2S/LGBTQI+ people, especially transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse (trans) people. Many trans people avoid receiving care because of discrimination or ignorance. Some research has shown that trans people are especially likely to have bad experiences with general practitioners and walk-in clinics compared to other forms of care, and that trans people prefer using 2S/LGBTQI+ health services. Both walk-in clinic service users and trans people are more likely to be lower-income, younger, and have more health conditions than their peers. There is also some evidence that trans people are less likely to have a family physician. Trans people may then be more likely to need walk-in health care, but there is little research about this intersection. Using reflexive thematic analysis, my research asks about 2S/LGBTQI+ walk-in clinics to improve primary health care for trans people. I ask: How do trans people use 2S/LGBTQI+ walk-in sexual and mental health clinics? Do they also use these clinics for primary or routine care? How do trans people use non-2S/LGBTQI+ walk-in clinics? What contributes to decisions about seeking care at a walk-in clinic? I will be interviewing 10-15 trans people in Toronto who have had an unmet primary care need in the past year. This research explores whether 2S/LGBTQI+ walk-in primary care clinics could reduce some healthcare disparities for trans people. In the long term, this could inform decisions about whether to create 2S/LGBTQI+ primary care walk-in clinics or expand existing services to include primary care.