A phenomenological exploration of transgender people's experiences of mental health services in Ireland.

Abstract

This study sought to explore the personal experiences of transgender people with Irish mental health services. The transgender community have been identified as an underserved, under-researched community in Ireland and abroad. While there has been a surge in research carried out with the community in recent years, there is little known about the personal experiences of Irish transgender people with mental health services. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to inform data collection and analysis of semi-structured interviews carried out with four research participants all identifying as transgender and having experienced accessing Irish mental health services. Three themes emerged: affirmative experiences, non-affirmative experiences and clinician relationship. Lack of information and non-affirmative experiences are contributing to poor clinician-patient relationships with transgender populations and impacting attrition. Nurse managers have a central role in supporting a transgender-positive organisational approach to care by ensuring policies, care practices and the environment are supportive of sexual and gender expression by role modelling attitudes of respect and inclusivity. In order to provide appropriate and responsive services to transgender people, there needs to be in place strategies to enable the development of confident, competent and knowledgeable staff.