Evaluating outcomes from an Australian webinar series on affirming approaches to working with trans and non-binary young people

ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine outcomes from a four-part webinar series on affirming approaches to working with trans and non-binary young people in terms of Australian psychologists’ confidence in working with this population.

Method: The author designed and ran a webinar series for the Australian Psychological Society (APS) in early 2018. Of the 76 webinar registrants, 55 completed a survey both before the first webinar, and after completing all of the webinar series. The first survey collected information about demographics, past clinical and training experiences, awareness of the DSM-5 diagnosis of “gender dysphoria”, and confidence in working with trans and non-binary young people. The first survey also included open-ended questions asking participants to define “cisgenderism”, “transgender”, and “non-binary”. The second survey included the same questions and additionally asked about understandings of gender diversity, pathways to care, and awareness of the APS information sheet on affirming approaches.

Results: Participants who had previously undertaken training, and previously worked with trans and non-binary people reported greater confidence prior to the webinar series. Statistically significant associations with confidence were found following the webinar series. Greater understanding of gender diversity and the APS information sheet were associated with confidence. Content analysis of the open-ended responses identified improved understandings of the three definitions for most participants after the webinar series.

Conclusions: Training for psychologists providing affirming care to trans and non-binary young people is important not only for those who specifically work with this population, but also for generalists, given that many young people may require mental health care beyond that specific to gender transition.

KEY POINTS

What is already known about this topic:

1. Previous training and experience in working with trans and non-binary adults are related to increased confidence in providing clinical care,

2. Training for healthcare professionals related to trans and non-binary adults results in increased confidence and knowledge, and

3. The evidence base for affirming approaches to clinical care for trans and non-binary young people is in its infancy.

What this topic adds:

1. Training for healthcare professionals related to trans and non-binary young people is specifically associated with confidence,

2. Theoretically informed training opportunities are associated with knowledge about terminology pertaining to trans and non-binary young people, and

3. The training of informed knowledgeable generalists working with trans and non-binary young people can usefully supplement existing specialist paediatric gender services.

KEYWORDS:

• Transgender
• non-binary
• affirming approaches
• training
• evaluation

Acknowledgments

The author would like to begin by acknowledging that he lives and works on the lands of the Kaurna people and to acknowledge their sovereignty as First Nations people. The author would like to thank Helen Lindner and Judith Gullifer for helping develop the proposal for the webinar series, and John Russo and Helen Lindner for helping to run the webinars.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for the research reported in this paper. The author is supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, FT130100087