Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT)

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Breann Lamborn

Keywords

Health Services for Transgender Persons; Occupational Therapy -- education; Social Discrimination -- prevention & control; Transgender Persons -- education

Abstract

Throughout current literature, it is clear that people who identify as transgender face larger percentages of occupational injustice and deprivation than people who identify with the sex they were assigned at birth (Bar, Jarus, Wada, Rechtman, & Noy, 2016; Twinley, 2014). There is no occupational therapy specific research or client-specific programming for transgender people (Beagan, Chiasson, Fiske, Forseth, Hosein, Myers & Stang, 2013), which indicates the need for supportive care for this population. The purpose of this scholarly project is to develop a training guide to prepare occupational therapists to provide supportive care for the transgender population. The Ecology of Human Performance (EHP) model will guide this scholarly project, as the focus on environmental stigmas will address those contexts that surround transgender people, and how occupational therapists can create all-inclusive environments to enhance care for transgender people and all communities. The EHP model identifies that stigma and discrimination interfere with participation in occupations that are meaningful to people (Brown, 2014). Therefore, EHP is an appropriate choice for training occupational therapists who may have conscious and unconscious personal biases, or work in environments with institutional biases towards transgender people. Anticipated results include occupational therapists playing a role to decrease stigma towards transgender people, that may be present in their immediate communities, and stigmas that are present in the American health care system and society as a whole.

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