Student Health highlights gender-affirming care services
Amid Pride Month, USC Student Health hopes to highlight its range of gender-affirming care services, Chief Student Health Officer Dr. Sarah Van Orman said in a briefing with the Daily Trojan Monday.
Student Health’s gender-affirming care services include medical services, such as hormone therapy and surgery, and counseling and mental health services. Aetna, USC’s Student Health Insurance Plan provider, covers these services as part of their benefits.
“This is a really core value for us at Student Health to make sure that all students receive appropriate services,” Van Orman said.
Van Orman also emphasized Student Health’s commitment to training its staff in providing equal and inclusive care.
“All of our staff participate in ongoing training through a variety of organizations, including The Fenway Institute, on providing culturally competent care . That’s something that we’ve invested a lot of time and a lot of energy in,” Van Orman said.
In 2021, the Human Rights Council designated Student Health as a healthcare quality index leader.
“It’s a designation as a healthcare facility [to] provide training to its leadership, [have] politics and practices that support equity inclusion for LGBTQ+ patients,” Van Orman said. “And we were really very proud to get that designation. We are one of just a handful of student health services in the country that have that.”
Student Health is also the recipient of a grant through the California Office of Emergency Services to work specifically with increasing and improving services for LGBTQIA+ individuals who have experienced sexual assault and misconduct.
Some initiatives made possible by the Cal OES grant include a specialized peer education for students who are members of the LGBTQIA+ community, Van Orman said.
In 2022, a study conducted by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law estimated that bills to restrict access to gender affirming care across 15 states would affect more than 58,000 transgender youth and adults ages 13 or older. In 2022, an estimated 1.3 million adults and 300,000 youth identified as transgender nationwide.
“Especially in this time, right now, it’s really important that we as healthcare providers recognize that this is a critical part of the services we provide, that it is the standard of care to provide inclusive and comprehensive services,” Van Orman said. “It is not appropriate that so many students in our country right now don’t have access to these services.”
Tracking the utilization of these services is a difficult task, Van Orman said, especially because the University is just now beginning to collect data on gender identity. However, based on general responses to Student Health’s annual surveys, gender affirming services are heavily utilized, and the numbers have only increased in the past four or five years — though Student Health could not share how many students sought out gender-affirming care.
“For any patient, but particularly patients who are members of historically discriminated against communities, there is sometimes fear and anxiety about seeking health care,” Van Orman said. “There’s a lot of stigma, so there are a lot of reasons why people might be reluctant to seek care.”
Van Orman also admitted that LGBTQIA+ patients still risk experiencing microaggressions in any health care environment. In April 2022, the University settled a lawsuit alleging that Dennis Kelly, a former campus physician at Student Health, sexually abused 80 former students who identified as LGBTQIA+.
“We are committed to a continual process of training and improvement and communication and engagement,” Van Orman said. “It’s not a simple sort of saying, ‘Okay, we have it all now.’ We’re continually engaging in this because we know it is a process to continue to earn and maintain trust with all of our patients.”