Trans*Forming Access and Care in Rural Areas: A Community-Engaged Approach.

Research indicates that rural transgender and gender diverse (TGD) populations have a greater need for health services when compared with their urban counterparts, face unique barriers to accessing services, and have health disparities that are less researched than urban TGD populations. Therefore, the primary aim of this mixed-methods study (n = 24) was to increase research on the health care needs of TGD people in a rural Appalachian American context. This study was guided by a community-engaged model utilizing a community advisory board of TGD people and supportive parents of TGD children. Quantitative results indicate that travel burden is high, affirming provider availability is low, and the impacts on the health and mental health of TGD people in this sample are notable. Qualitative results provide recommendations for providers and health care systems to better serve this population. Integrated mixed-methods results further illustrate ways that rural TGD people and families adapt to the services available to them, sometimes at significant economic and emotional costs. This study contributes to the small but growing body of literature on the unique needs of rural TGD populations, including both adults and minors with supportive parents, by offering insights into strategies to address known disparities.

The Psychometric Properties of the Competency Assessment Tool for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Clients.

This study introduces a new instrument designed to assess affirmative clinical practices with sexual and gender minority (SGM) clients, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Competency Assessment Tool (LGBT-CAT). The LGBT-CAT has two unique qualities: Its design enables adaptation to measure practice competencies with gay, lesbian, bisexual and/or transgender clients, the latter of which has no existing measures regarding practice competencies, and it uses a qualitative collection method. Participants respond to 12 open-ended prompts; responses are then quantified by one or more raters based on a scoring rubric. In this cross-sectional study, practicing social workers (N = 357) were surveyed using the LGBT-CAT as well as measures of affirmative practices with SGM clients, knowledge, beliefs, self-efficacy skills, attitudes, and behaviors. The LGBT-CAT demonstrated good reliability, poor criterion validity, and adequate construct validity. These results support the potential integration of the LGBT-CAT into research on practice with SGM clients.

Exploring psychometric properties of the interdisciplinary education perception scale in health graduate students.

Designed as a measure of perceptions of collaboration, the original psychometric testing of the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS) indicated a four-factor solution to this measure, although subsequent research has suggested a three-factor solution may have better fit indices. This study aimed to better understand psychometric properties of the IEPS in a new population, health graduate students in the United States, to determine which sub-scale structure may be a better fit. Additionally this research explores the IEPS through a targeted literature review and content analysis in combination with factor analysis to better understand what constructs are able to be assessed by this measure. Results showed that the three-factor model was the best fitting model for the IEPS, suggesting this structure should be used when looking at graduate-level health students. Results also suggested that the IEPS may be able to be as a measure of perceived professional prestige, for which there is currently no existing measure. The dimension of professional prestige should be explored in further research to create a more robust understanding of its role in collaboration between professions.