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The Fenway Institute Partners with Boston Children’s Hospital GeMS Clinic to Provide Training on Clinical Care for Transgender Youth in New York City

The National LGBT Health Education Center at The Fenway Institute has partnered with the Gender Management Services Clinic (GeMS) at Boston Children’s Hospital to develop and deliver an innovative training program on affirming care for transgender and non-binary youth for the NYC Health + Hospitals system.

NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the United States, providing services to more than 1 million New Yorkers every year at over 70 locations across the city’s five boroughs. While NYC Health + Hospitals has made hormone therapy readily available to transgender and non-binary patients beginning at age 16, pubertal suppressants and hormone therapy services have not been widely available to pediatric patients. Knowing the positive correlation between gender affirmation and mental health outcomes, NYC Health + Hospitals sought out trainings that would build the capacity of pediatricians, mental health clinicians, and pediatric endocrinologists to work with other support staff to offer comprehensive, integrated gender-affirming services to transgender youth.

Last year, NYC Health + Hospitals partnered with the National LGBT Health Education Center to develop and implement an advanced certification training program in LGBTQ health. This new training program builds off of that successful partnership and brings in even more Boston-based expertise to deliver the training sessions. The new program consists of seven full-day trainings led by the Director of Gender Management Service and the Director of Mental Health Services from Boston Children’s Hospital, covering the key social determinants that impact this youth population and best practices in the delivery of health services. Each training will also include a presentation by a legal expert and a panel presentation from local parents and transgender youth.

“We are delighted to grow our partnerships with NYC Health + Hospitals and Boston Children’s Hospital by developing the first comprehensive curriculum and systematic training on establishing clinical services for transgender and non-binary youth,” says Alex S. Keuroghlian, Director of the Division of Education and Training at The Fenway Institute. “This training program will ultimately serve as a national model for dissemination of best practices to meet the public health needs of gender-expansive youth across the United States.”

The goal of this training program is to improve health outcomes for transgender youth in New York City by increasing the number of health care providers who are better prepared to provide competent and comprehensive gender-affirming care. This youth-focused program is part of the municipal safety net hospital system’s larger strategy to achieve health equity and access for New York City’s LGBTQ communities.

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