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After facing discrimination throughout their lives, many older trans and gender-diverse people fear they will encounter more of the same when accessing care services in the community.
This is one of the issues Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS) diversity manager Jaklina Michael will try to address through a new project.
The work will aim to build up the knowledge and capacity of community nursing and aged-care staff to work with trans and gender-diverse people.
The Sidney Myer Fund and the Gay and Lesbian Foundation of Australian board of directors announced $15,000 of funding for the project, as part of the Sidney Myer Fund Poverty and Disadvantage Small Grants Program.
This project will support the implementation of the RDNS Diversity Framework 2012–2017, which was set up to meet the needs of clients and carers with diverse needs and from diverse backgrounds.
Michael, who will be part of the team leading the project, said RDNS will work with some of its trans and gender-diverse clients to develop narratives for staff.
“We're hoping to recruit some of them onto a small working group," Michael. "Together with representatives from organisations who specialise in working with trans and gender-diverse people … and our nurses and aged-care staff, we're going to look at client narratives or stories.
“These client narratives are in existence already for other population groups. Now, we're going to add our very trans and gender-oriented stories to these existing stories.
She added the organisation hopes to make these stories available in its education and learning centre.
The team will also develop guidelines for staff when working with trans and gender-diverse people.
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