Registration is now open for the “GenderWorks: Advancing Transgender Care in the Heartland” conference, to be held Nov. 8 at the Omaha Hilton Downtown.
The conference is dedicated to providing medical and mental health care providers with education and training on how to competently serve transgender patients and clients. The conference also provides training for educators seeking to advance the rights of transgender and gender diverse students, and policymakers seeking to help the community. This conference is hosted by the Professional Transgender Resource Network (PTRN) in collaboration with UNMC.
This conference is intended for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, counselors, social workers, policymakers and educators.
At the conclusion of this conference, participants should be better able to:
- Define terminology and language used by transgender individuals;
- Identify current approaches and standards of care used to treat transgender patients and clients, and barriers that limit access to health care;
- Recall social, mental, and medical influences that impact transgender identities for patients, clients, and students; and
- Identify patient-centered approaches for providing inclusive and welcoming care for transgender people.
This year’s conference will feature the leaders in the field, including:.
- Diane Ehrensaft, Ph.D, developmental and clinical psychologist and author of books including “The Gender Creative Child” and “genderborn, gendermade,” San Francisco;
- Aidan Key, founder and executive director of Gender Diversity, Seattle
- Mara Keisling, founder and executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, Washington D.C.;
- Dr. Kevin Hatfield, family medicine/primary care physician at The Polyclinic, Seattle; and
- Marcia Barnett, medical student at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.
“We are delighted to have a tremendous lineup of nationally recognized experts in transgender health to speak this year,” said Jean Amoura, M.D., one of the conference organizers. “They represent backgrounds in areas from medicine to behavioral health to policy and education.”
The format for the conference has been changed after input from attendees, said Dr. Amoura, who is an associate professor in the UNMC Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology.
“The entire day will include all attendees in a space together, so that the day can be fully interdisciplinary,” she said. “People indicated that they wanted to learn about a variety of aspects of transgender health and to interact with colleagues from other areas of health, so that’s what we’ve tried to arrange. There will also be plenty of time for informal discussion with speakers and other attendees between sessions. We are looking forward to a great day of information and interaction.”