Australian mental health professionals’ competencies for working with trans clients: a comparative study

Abstract

Growing numbers of trans people require access to mental health services; however, previous research suggests that many trans clients have negative experiences with mental health professionals. This paper reports on an Australian survey of 304 counsellors, mental health nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers with regard to their clinical knowledge, comfort and confidence in working with trans clients. The findings suggest that training and previous experience in working with trans clients are related to increased levels of accurate clinical knowledge and confidence; that psychiatrists had the lowest levels of accurate knowledge; that female participants had higher levels of accurate knowledge than did male participants; that counsellors had the highest levels of confidence and that there was a negative relationship between religiosity and comfort in working with trans clients. The paper concludes by advocating for the development of more nuanced measures to assess the attitudes and skillsets of mental health professionals in regards to working with trans clients and the need for further upskilling of the Australian mental health workforce.

Keywords:

• transgender
• mental health professionals
• competencies
• training
• knowledge

Acknowledgements

We begin by acknowledging the sovereignty of the Kaurna people, the First Nations people upon whose land we live and work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this paper was supported by a Flinders University Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences small grant.

Notes on contributors

Damien W. Riggs

Damien W. Riggs is an Associate Professor in social work at Flinders University, and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. He is the author of over 150 publications in the areas of gender, family, and mental health, and he also works in private practice as a psychotherapist specializing in working with young trans people.

Clare Bartholomaeus

Clare Bartholomaeus is an adjunct Research Associate in the School of Social and Policy Studies at Flinders University. Her research interests include gender, diversity, and childhood/youth. She is currently working on a number of projects on trans topics in the areas of education and mental health.