Black and white pine tree prints hang from the walls. The hallways are accented with mid-century style wallpaper and handsome benches. The clinic is a far cry from the yellowing community centers that many LGBTQ+ patients have known since the 1970s.
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McKona welcomes families for intake in a room draped with a progressive pride flag, the full spectrum of the rainbow, Black and brown to reflect a commitment to racial diversity and trans pride colors decorating the room. All the providers and myself are sitting there and they’re like, ‘I’ve dealt with this for 10 years,’ like a chronic illness.” “The list of problems that they have are serious, and they just brush it off.
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They are a series of invitations and assurances that the care they deserve is not dependent on who they are.Īrin McKona, an ambulatory nurse, said he has seen a lot of patients at Transhealth who have gone 10 or even 15 years without primary care because past physicians misgendered them or didn’t know how to care for their bodies. The moments seem simple, but they could change everything for patients, many of whom have avoided doctors for years.
“We had someone come in from a local practice and sit in one of these chairs and he said, ‘this is the first time I have not felt pathologized by a chair,’” Ducar recalled.ĭucar’s dream for health care is full of these moments. Even a parent and child together, if they want. It’s not particularly attractive or comfortable, but it’s wider than the chairs you’re used to. It’s an office chair in every way - black metal armrests, blue vinyl seat cushions. An oversized medical chair sits in the corner of an exam room. The clinic puts a heavy emphasis on comfort as part of health care, on removing the indignities that might prevent patients from returning. The report concluded that 10,000 of them are residents of Western Massachusetts.Īndrew Sackett-Taylor, a psychiatric nurse practitioner at Transhealth, said accessing trans-affirming mental health care can be particularly challenging, with patients sitting on waiting lists for months before being seen. Three years ago, Cohen commissioned a study that revealed the state has roughly 30,000 gender-diverse residents. The need in Massachusetts alone is clear. The clinic has been taking advantage of relaxed rules that allow health care providers to treat out-of-state people via telehealth during the pandemic, but Ducar, the organization’s CEO, says they are aiming to certify providers throughout New England so that they can provide wide-reaching care beyond the pandemic. Transhealth Northampton is trying to change that via in-person and telehealth appointments for patients in rural Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and other surrounding states. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about half of states have LGBTQ+ affirming health centers, but most do not specialize in LGBTQ+ health, and transgender care in particular can be hard to access. They typically work from LGBTQ+ clinics in major cities. That Northampton did not have a transgender health clinic prior to 2021 is perhaps more suprising than the fact that it does now.īut doctors like Cronyn are hard to come by. Rainbow flags adorn nearly every business year-round. Northampton’s population was 90 percent White in the last census, but its storefronts and churches are decorated with “Black Lives Matter” banners. “The dream is to create that space where people can be authentic and co-creative and generative,” said Dallas Ducar, a trans woman who left her position as the clinical lead for mental health services at the Massachusetts General Hospital Transgender Health Program to start Transhealth. In many circles, transgender people have opted to get information and advice on hormones, surgery expectations, aftercare and dysphoria from YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, because providers are not versed in their medical needs. Many providers have also historically struggled to provide truly comprehensive transgender care: Patients report being misgendered and facing situations where their providers may embrace who they are - but don’t understand their unique medical needs. Transgender Survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality reported that just 40 percent of transgender people were out to all of their health care providers. Andrew Cronyn sold his home and left his 250-patient practice in Tucson to join TransHealth Northampton.
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