Working with trans and gender diverse children

What is it like to work in one of the country's main services providing care to trans and gender diverse children and adolescents? Paediatrician, Dr Michelle Telfer, is the Head of Department of Adolescent Medicine at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Melbourne and Director of the RCH Gender Service. In addition to improving medical and mental health services for the transgender population, Michelle played a major role in successfully advocating for legal reform, with transgender young people now able to access hormone and surgical treatment without the need for approval by the Family Court of Australia. Michelle shares her experience leading the Gender Service at the RCH, why she loves the work, and how practitioners can best support trans and gender diverse children and their families.   In this episode you will learn:

• How numbers of children seeking help are changing and why this might be (4:40)
• How the Gender Service at RCH works (7:01)
• The importance of language to the issue of gender diversity (10:13)
• What child-focused and parent-sensitive practice looks like in the Gender Service (21:00)
• How practitioners can best support trans or gender diverse children and their parents (30:25)

Further information and resources: The RCH Gender Service website Australian Professional Association for Trans Health website Australian Standards of Care and Treatment Guidelines: For trans and gender diverse children and adolescents More from Emerging Minds: Supporting trans and gender diverse children and their families Creating a welcoming and safe organisation for trans and gender diverse children and their families: A checklist for allied health services Supporting trans or gender diverse children and their families with gender affirmation: A guide for GPs and paediatricians   Visit https://emergingminds.com.au/resources/podcast/working-with-trans-and-gender-diverse-children/ for all links and further information.