The suicide rate among transgender people is unusually high and stands at 41%, and the attitude of the LGBT community, which has been making headlines lately, caused the Haifa and Western Galilee district to hold a workshop for nurses in clinics and the mental health service offered by the Ministry of Health in order for them to acquire professional tools that could help make the service more accessible and the treatment for this sensitive population.
The workshop on the subject was delivered in a professional and fascinating manner by Nina, a transgender woman, who was a man for 43 years and became a woman and is currently the community representative in sex change committees, very active and involved in community life.
In the workshop, personal stories of transgender people were brought up that greatly moved the participants and mainly sharpened issues that require attention and sensitivity when treating this gender, of which they were not aware before, such as the meaning of pain in the internal organs, the method of referral and awareness of a high risk of suicide. Percent
Suicide among transgenders 41%
The participants were amazed to hear that the suicide rate among transgenders is high and unusual at a rate of 41%. The need for the accessibility of life-saving treatments and surgeries was also emphasized, when the age of sexual puberty in which external sex signs appear, such as breast growth, is a high-risk junction, it is possible to help by providing drug treatment that inhibits the appearance of signs that contradict the adolescent's identity. Because, if they are not given assistance in a medically controlled manner, they will find other ways, buy pills on the street and take dangerous doses, inject silicone into their buttocks, when they may suffer from necrosis and complications as a result.
In the training, the participants were given professional tools that could help make the service and treatment more accessible for this sensitive population. The need to create friendly treatment addresses for transgender people and the need to inform them about the places they can turn to, their rights in the health system and more, as well as informing the staff about these rights.
Objectively, this whole thing sounds like a serious mental illness. Suicidality, problems with fundamental identity, danger of causing self-harm, and a desire to die... dangerous.
Nurse.