Grant: Patient-Oriented Research Collaboration Grants

Transgender (trans) people have worse health than people who are cisgender. This includes worse mental health, being more likely to consider suicide, substance misuse, and poor healthcare. Transgender people have been ignored and excluded in health research and services. We aim to build skills and capacities for trans community members and healthcare providers. We will then research priority trans issues of mental health, sexual health and primary care services. Our research will be community-based and guided by an advisory board. Our work is guided by life course and minority stress theories, intersectionality, and a social ecological perspective. Our project has three phases: community consultation, capacity building, and data collection. We are focused on the Vancouver Island health authority region of British Columbia. We will ask trans people how they want to participate in research. We will teach healthcare providers and policy makers about trans people and health issues. We will use both qualitative and quantitative methods. We will conduct interviews or focus groups with 300 transgender patients in the Island Health Region. Next we will run an online survey of 300 diverse trans people across British Columbia. Our team has diverse academic, community, and professional training. We have health policy and service leaders from Rainbow Health Cooperative, TransCareBC and the Vancouver Island Health Authority. These leaders will ensure our research results are taken up into policy and programs. Over half of our team are trans people and we are committed to supporting the next generation of trans health researchers. This project will provide a trans perspective on patient engagement in health research. This initial research will help launch a larger program of research to evaluate and improve the health equity of trans people living in British Columbia.