TRANSforming care for survivors of gender-based violence

Transgender (trans) persons are disproportionately likely to experience sexual assault, yet receiving appropriate care and support in its aftermath can be exceedingly difficult, inhibiting their recovery. These challenges are particularly acute if trans survivors experience intersecting health and/or psychosocial issues preceding or associated with their assault. A complement of services and supports from a range of professionals–social service providers through to specialized forensic nurses–is critical to meeting trans survivors’ diverse needs. However, systemic barriers, including lack of provider knowledge and explicit discrimination and transphobia, hamper access to high quality collaborative care.

Our focus is on promoting the adoption of trans-affirming practices–practices which recognize, account for, and address the unique experiences of trans survivors–to advance intersectoral collaboration and support, enhance the knowledge of professionals serving trans communities, and rectify the harms caused by structurally entrenched transphobic discrimination in health and social service systems. A critical component of this work has been centering the voices of trans persons and engaging with 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations.

We have undertaken several initiatives to transform care and supports for trans survivors over the past several years. First, we developed, implemented, and evaluated novel in-person and online trans-affirming sexual assault care curricula for forensic nurses working across 36 hospital-based sexual assault/domestic violence treatment centers (SA/DVTCs) in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. Pre- to post-training evaluations of these curricula revealed increased levels of self-reported expertise and competence in all four content areas (e.g., initial assessment, medical care, forensic examination, discharge and referral). Following these successes, we tailored both curricula to other health and social service providers (accessible here: https://www.translinknetwork.com/curricula). The revised curricula have since been accessed by representatives of more than 400 diverse organizations internationally (e.g., United States Navy, University of West Macedonia, Indigenous Services Canada, Yukon Government).

We then established an intersectoral network–the Ontario trans-LINK Network–to foster trans-affirming practice across 130+ sexual assault/domestic violence treatment centres and trans-positive community and social service organizations. We collectively developed Network mission, vision, and values and, based on deliverables identified by these trans-LINK Network member organizations, created an interactive online directory of services, housed on a online WebPortal (https://www.translinknetwork.com), which also hosts a range of other materials, including research reports, guidelines, toolkits, podcasts, videos, clinical summaries, infosheets, and our curricula. To date, the WebPortal has had over 11,000 global visitors.

To compliment our Network-building efforts, we designed #TRANSformativeKnowledge, a Twitter campaign to “promote awareness about the damaging harmful attitudes, beliefs, and reactions related to sexual assault against trans people.” By dispelling misconceptions among services providers, our goal was to improve survivors’ access to appropriate services post-assault (https://www.translinknetwork.com/advocacy-campaign). At the time of its launch, this campaign garnered 100,000 impressions and 2000 engagements on Twitter.

The success of our efforts to advance and coordinate trans-affirming services is an encouraging step toward accessible, high-quality sexual assault care and supports–and health equity broadly–for trans communities across the globe. By shifting professional practices, fostering widespread collaboration, engaging in collective advocacy, and disrupting damaging stereotypes and misconceptions about trans communities, the trans-LINK Network and associated initiatives are well situated to redress barriers to caring for and supporting trans survivors. Our approach to harnessing the collective capacity of numerous trans-positive organizations can provide a model for other jurisdictions looking to address this pervasive and pernicious issue while driving our continued work to advance trans-affirming care.

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Article Details:

Advancing Trans-Affirming Practice to Recognize, Account for, and Address the Unique Experiences and Needs of Transgender Sexual Assault Survivors
Janice Du Mont, EdD, Joseph Friedman Burley, MPH, Robyn Hodgson, RN, and Sheila Macdonald, MN
First published online April 24, 2021
DOI: 10.1177/15248399211009183
Health Promotion Practice

Promoting Awareness to Counter Damaging Attitudes, Beliefs, and Reactions Related to Sexual Assault Against Trans People: A Social Media Campaign for Health and Social Service Providers
Joseph Friedman Burley, MPH, Janice Du Mont, EdD, Alexander Reid, BEd, and Sheila Macdonald, MN
First published online March 18, 2022
DOI: 10.1177/15248399221074981
Health Promotion Practice

About the Authors

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Janice Du Mont, EdD, is a Senior Scientist at Women’s College Research Institute, Women’s College Hospital and Professor and Director of the Collaborative Specialization in Women’s Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She leads an interdisciplinary program of research to address gender-based violence, with a focus on improving services for structurally marginalized populations.

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C. Emma Kelly, MA, is a Research Assistant at Women’s College Research Institute, Women’s College Hospital, working with Dr. Janice Du Mont on her interdisciplinary program of gender-based violence research. Her research interests include violence, 2SLGBTQIA+ issues, and criminal and procedural justice.