New Developments in Transgender Health Care Across the Lifespan: Gender Creative Children, TGNC Adolescents and Transgender Adults - Friday Forum filled

February 10, 2017
Registration: 8:30 – 9:00 a.m.
Program: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Friday Forums are cosponsored with the
Metropolitan State University Psychology Department

About the program:

Please note: You must attend the full 3-hour program to get continuing education credit for the event.

This session qualifies for 3.0 continuing education credits.
Given the national political landscape brought on by the recent presidential election, it is important to be aware of potential changes in TG health care.   While there continue to be evolving best practice guidelines and standards of care for the medical and mental health professions, it is possible that the policies, executive orders and directives currently in place due to the Obama administration support of LGBT Americans will be rolled back.  This presentation will begin by discussing what is known at this early point in the Trump administration’s approach specific to TG health care.   We will then move to the local level and discuss, from the perspective of the University of Minnesota’s Center of Sexual Health/Program in Human Sexuality, recent themes that have emerged in transgender mental health care across the lifespan.  These will include a) the rising demand for competent care and welcoming environments, b) the importance of understanding developmental differences between gender creative children, TGNC adolescents and transgender adults, c) controversies and implications around medical transition timelines for adolescents, and d) the importance of addressing fertility issues (especially with adolescents) within the process of informed consent for puberty suppression and/or hormones. 

Participants will be able to:

1. Identify the potential threats to affirmative TG health care based on the transition from an Obama administration to a Trump administration.
2. Create a welcoming environment of care that challenges the existing institutional infrastructures within mental health and medical settings to be more inclusive of trans experiences.
3. Describe why competent care involves developmentally appropriate care.
4. Define fertility implications of common medical interventions being used with trans-identified youth including puberty suppression in young adolescents and hormones/surgery in older adolescents and adults.

About the presenter:

Dianne Berg, Ph.D., LP, is an assistant professor and licensed psychologist at the Program in Human Sexuality. She is the co-coordinator of the Transgender Health Services Program with a special emphasis in Child and Adolescent Gender Health and a member of the Child and Adolescent Committee of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), an international organization that asserts clinical and evidence-based practices through its published Standards of Care.  Dr. Berg is a published scholar and invited speaker at regional, national and international conferences. She has been working clinically with gender creative children and transgender adolescents for over 10 years.  She received her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

The Minnesota Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.  The Minnesota Psychological Association maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

ACCESSIBILITY ACCOMMODATIONS:  If you need disability related accommodations, including parking, to make this event accessible, please contact the Metropolitan State University Center for Accessibility Resources, 651-793-1549, or [email protected].

To Register: