For Elliot L., their job as patient navigator for gender affirming care services at our Westside health center in Santa Cruz is not only about providing health care. It’s about health justice – especially in the days of COVID-19, when finding this care that patients need and deserve is more challenging than ever.
Even before California’s shelter-in-place order came down in March, those seeking gender affirming care – whether for hormone treatment, referrals for surgeries, or mental health support – were routinely driving two or three hours to receive services at Westside.
Elliot said the health center’s rapid shift to providing telehealth appointments during the pandemic has actually eased some issues of patient-access because people can begin receiving care from home. It’s a big departure from the obstacles patients usually face in the health care system.
“The process of getting prescribed hormones or accessing gender-affirming procedures is often bureaucratic, obscure, unaffordable and sometimes emotionally harmful or even endangering for patients,” Elliot said. “When we get to act in a creative and patient-centered way, it’s a chance to establish a different pattern. We get to listen, remove barriers to care, fix problems, explain things, advocate for patients’ needs, and respect them as whole people within their lives, communities, and histories -- so the experience is hopefully contributing to well-being for our patients instead of detracting from it.
“Our health care is a life-line for people. I want it to be a respectful, empowering experience. People often say the gender affirming care they’ve received at our health center is the best they’ve experienced. Although of course there’s room for growth.
“It’s such a joyful thing!”
Tags: covid-19, gender_affirming_care