Parents of transgender, gender-nonconforming or gender-diverse youth may seek support from other parents to gain a greater understanding of the resources available to their children, according to a group of adolescent-health specialists. When parents feel supported, they can also support their child's gender identity, which can reduce some of the higher mental health risks that gender-diverse youth face, they write in the journal Pediatrics. "We, as providers, often focus so much on our patient that we can forget about the whole family as a system and how integral parental or familial support is for a young person," said lead author Dr. Caitlin Thornburgh of the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Nearly 2% of students in high school identify as transgender or gender-nonconforming, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meaning their innate sense of gender doesn't correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Gender-diverse youth face higher rates of discrimination, depression, anxiety and suicide, and family support can reduce those risks, Dr. Thornburgh said. "Parents of gender-diverse youth, in particular, often express being totally unfamiliar with trans and gender-diverse people or their experiences prior to their child coming out," she told Reuters Health by email. "We've found that introducing parents to other families with gender-diverse children can help them feel less isolated and offer opportunities to learn how to better support their child." Dr. Thornburgh and her colleagues spoke with a group of local parents and created a framework with parent-support strategies. The Pittsburgh Chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG, holds a regular potluck event, for instance, where parents talk about their experiences and resources. "When my son first came out as transgender, I did not know how to best take care of him because I did not understand what being transgender meant," one parent wrote. "My family and I first experienced a sense of comfort, acceptance, and community at a parent-run potluck dinner." Based on the group's feedback, Dr. Thornburgh and her colleagues suggested a community advisory board for the University of Pittsburgh's gender clinic, a parent outreach program and an open, supportive discussion during a parent's first visit to the clinic. Now a group of parents, gender-diverse youth and gender-diverse adults meet with the clinic providers monthly at a local coffee shop to discuss resources, and new patients and parents are matched with group members for individual peer support. "Having a community advisory board is essential for clinics and providers in knowing how to best care for gender-diverse youth and their families," said Dr. Sabra Katz-Wise of Harvard Medical School. Dr. Katz-Wise, who wasn't involved with this paper, has studied family dynamics among transgender and gender-nonconforming youth and their caregivers. "It is also essential to conducting research with this community to ensure that the research empowers and affirms their experiences rather than stigmatizing or tokenizing them," she told Reuters Health by email. A limitation of the parent-support group is a lack of diversity, the authors write. The majority of members are white and have a limited number of religious affiliations and backgrounds, which could hinder the support experience. The community advisory board is now connecting with community-based organizations to better serve people of color and different religious communities. "The obvious next question is: How do you scale up this model to support a wider range of parents? And how to you overcome the consistent problem that white and privately insured families are the ones receiving the best healthcare - relating to gender identity and most other areas?" said Dr. Amy Hillier of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Dr. Hillier, who wasn't involved with this article, has written about parent support groups for families with transgender and gender-nonconforming children. "There are so many parents who are not connected to specialty care and need affirming healthcare professionals, written materials normalizing gender exploration, and peer support," she told Reuters Health by email. "How do we reach them?" SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2G8ENCB Pediatrics, online September 24, 2020. Source
