Experiences of Trans and Gender Diverse Youth Accessing Emergency Departments: Results of a Community-Designed...

This exploratory study aimed to provide preliminary insights into how trans and gender diverse youth rate their care in emergency departments, which factors they perceive as influencing their experiences, and whether the concept of ED avoidance, identified in research with trans and gender diverse adults, is relevant to trans and gender diverse youth.

This exploratory cross-sectional survey and online questionnaire was codesigned by a research team that comprised academic members and trans and gender diverse youth. The study was open to youth across Canada and collected both sociodemographic information and experiential data using short-answer and Likert-type scales paired with comment boxes.

The participants (n = 28), aged 16 to 25 years, reported highly variable experiences in the emergency department, ranging from 0 (very poor) to 8.5 of 10 (excellent) with a mean of 4.3. Furthermore, half (n = 14; 50%) avoided seeking needed care out of concern for how they would be treated. The results of this study suggest that there are a number of factors, such as the trans-competence of the provider, the patient's co-occurring positionality, and the type of chief complaint, that may contribute to the poor experiences of trans and gender diverse youth and their subsequent ED avoidance.

These findings provide preliminary insights into the experiences of trans and gender diverse youth accessing and receiving care in emergency departments and suggest that ED avoidance is a salient concept for this age/developmental stage.