Transcare – HelMSIC Greece

Name of the activity: Transcare

Country/NMO: HelMSIC Greece

Program: Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: Continuous Activity.

Category: Education

Focus area: LGBTQIA+ issues

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: GOAL 5: GENDER EQUALITY

General description:

Transcare project is approved in the Framework of the EU’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme, focusing on educating healthcare providers regarding equal access to healthcare for transgender individuals. It will contribute to the protection of their rights by addressing policy gaps and proposing recommendations. It aims to increase the capacity of healthcare providers with comprehensive and non-discriminatory education, thus facilitating access to healthcare for transgender individuals.

Problem statement:

Transgender people experience health disparities that negatively impact their quality of life. Greece shows high rates (73%) of discrimination on gender identity. The Transcare consortium conducted a scoping review to investigate the experience of transgender people in healthcare in Greece. According to this, 37% of transgender people would not be open about their LGBT status and 19% who accessed healthcare felt discriminated. Transcare was born as a remedy to all the inappropriate approaches.

Target groups:

General population, Medical students, Healthcare Students, Doctors, Other health professionals, LGBTQIA+ community

Beneficiaries:

Medical students, Healthcare Students, Doctors, Other health professionals, LGBTQIA+ community

Objectives:

1. To tackle discrimination on the grounds of gender identity and gender expression, especially against transgender people, in the Greek healthcare system, through public awareness activities.
   2. To alleviate the healthcare barriers for transgender people, in the Greek healthcare system, by making policy recommendations.
   3. To re-educate clinic staff and providers on transgender rights and healthcare needs through the Transcare online platform.
   4. To increase the number of resources for healthcare providers, about transgender access to healthcare through the Transcare online platform.

Indicators of Success:

1.1 2 hosted events and 3 national info days involving at least 300 and 150 participants each have been organised.
1.2 A Conference with at least 200 participants (public authorities, stakeholders, NGOs and gender equality bodies) has been organised.
2.1 2 Policy Roundtables with representatives from healthcare institutions, independent authorities, academic community members and NGOs have been organised.
2.2 A report providing policy recommendations on improving the access of transgender people in healthcare has been created.
3.1 An interactive training program through MOOC for healthcare providers has been designed.
3.2 400 healthcare providers in Greece have been trained through the MOOC on how to handle and respect transgender patients.
4.1 Open resources material about transgender access to healthcare, through the online platform has been created.
4.2 A Good Practice Guide on fighting discrimination on sexual orientation in healthcare systems has been created and disseminated.

Methodology:

Rranscare (July 2020 – June 2023) is divided in 4 Working Packages, led respectively by NKUA, UoC, Readlab & HelMSIC:
Project management & coordination: Assures the efficient execution of the other WP through monitoring, meetings, reports, quality assurance and impact assessment.
Identify healthcare barriers & clinic staff training needs: Involves clinic providers in deliverables’ design, defines the learning outcomes of the training program, analyses the Greek healthcare systems’ existing situation and identifies good practices for adaptation.
Capacity building for clinic staff & providers: Entails the capacity building action, by developing a MOOC training program, training pilots and a certification mechanism.
Network-building, awareness-raising, dissemination & sustainability: Focuses on the implementation of the dissemination and sustainability strategy, including the organization of dissemination materials, activities and events and sustainability actions (Final conference, MoU)

Plans for evaluation:

Continuous evaluation of the progress of the Dissemination, Awareness Raising and Sustainability Plan.
Quantitative evaluation of the impact achieved with data about the number of persons reached in the online survey, the number of persons participated in the public awareness activities and the number of healthcare providers that completed the interactive training program through MOOC.
Continuous evaluation of the progress and quality of the project deliverables (Policy recommendations report, Good Practice Guide on fighting discrimination).
Pilot testing of the Transcare online seminars, through an evaluation form upon completion of the course by the participants.
Qualitative evaluation of the Transcare MOOC by a report, that outlines the learning outcomes of a training program for clinic staff and providers, based on input from at least 70 survey participants, received at the pilot testing. The report will provide recommendations on improvements needed in the training program.

External collaborations:

Co-funded in the Framework of the EU’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020). The consortium is composed of
MSc program “Global Health – Disaster Medicine”,National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Project Coordinator
HelMSIC
University of Crete – Department of Social and Family Medicine
Colour Youth – Athens LGBTQ Youth Community
Positive Voice – Red Umbrella Athens
Orlando LGBT+
Medical Association of Athens
AKMI
ReadLab – Research Innovation & Development Lab