Historical psychiatric hospitalizations and experiences with mental healthcare providers in deaf transgender and gender diverse adults.
Little is known about experiences of psychiatric hospitalization, access to mental health providers, and trust in mental health providers for deaf, transgender and gender diverse (TGD) adults, especially for those who identify outside of the gender binary and those who identify as a racial/ethnic minority. This project used data collected as part of the 2017 TransLifeline Mental Health Survey. Chi-square analyses compared endorsement of hospitalization and endorsement of having a mental health provider between TGD deaf and TGD hearing adults. Spearman's rank order correlation coefficients compared trust in providers and access to providers between TGD deaf adults and their TGD hearing adult peers. Compared to their TGD hearing peers, TGD deaf participants, regardless of gender identity, were more likely to report a history of psychiatric hospitalization. History of involuntary hospitalization did not differ between groups. Current or historical use of therapy providers also did not differ between groups. However, TGD deaf participants and TGD deaf White participants did endorse more difficulty with finding a therapy provider. Similarly, TGD deaf, TGD White, TGD racial/ethnic minority, and TGD non-binary participants reported diminished trust in therapy providers compared to their TGD hearing peers. Current or historical use of and access to psychiatric care did not differ between groups. However, TGD deaf racial/ethnic minority participants reported diminished trust in psychiatric providers compared to their TGD hearing racial/ethnic minority peers. deaf TGD adults are at an increased risk for psychiatric hospitalization and report difficulties with finding mental health providers and trusting those providers.
Authors
Fowler Fowler, O'Brien O'Brien, Scoresby Scoresby, Cerel Cerel, Tucker Tucker
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