Applying an Abolitionist Framework to Understand and Address Mental Health Concerns Among Transgender and Gender-Diverse Populations.
This article explores the mental health concerns of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals within a mutual aid and harm reduction framework. Despite historical strides toward equity and care in the public health sector, TGD people face structural discrimination, polyvictimization, and worsening political hostility that heighten mental health disparities. The authors critique medical and nursing practices shaped by carceral logic and call for new approaches rooted in equity and care. Clinical recommendations emphasize affirming, trauma-informed, and community-based care, while highlighting harm reduction and mutual aid as essential, evidence-based strategies for collective healing, resilience, and a move toward communal care.