Dr. Carolyn Wolf-Gould of Bassett Healthcare Network's Gender Wellness Center Offers Insights into Rural Transgender Care in New Publication

Dr. Carolyn Wolf-Gould, medical director of Bassett Healthcare Network's Gender Wellness Center (GWC), has published a book chapter outlining ways to improve care for transgender patients in our communities. The piece, called "From Margins to Mainstream: Creating a Rural-Based Center of Excellence in Transgender Care for Upstate New York," will share important insights and ideas with clinicians across the country that Bassett's GWC is pioneering. 

Dr. Wolf-Gould founded the GWC in 2015 as an institution embedded within her larger Susquehanna Family Practice at the FoxCare Center in Oneonta. Founding the GWC was a continuation of eight years of work, adding formal structure to a growing mission within her practice. But it was also an opportunity for her team to set a new goal: creating a Center of Excellence in transgender health care. The article describes the work of the GWC's clinical team during their three-year Clinical Scholar's Program with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sharing strategies and progress in an effort to help and encourage colleagues nationwide who face similar challenges.

"From insurance carriers denying claims, to doctors unfamiliar with trans health issues, to social stigma, transgender and gender-nonconforming people come up against many barriers when seeking health care," Dr. Wolf-Gould explains. "As a result, many avoid doctors until they have an emergency need. Their health depends on our removing those barriers so they can find the medical support they need."

That is not easy. The barriers are pervasive, systemic, and complex. Possible solutions are unclear and require significant time, energy, and money to pursue. This is why Dr. Wolf-Gould and her team feel obliged to share what they've learned on the road to building a Center of Excellence. 

"It's not enough to just meet the particular needs of our individual patients, or even to create a safe space for members of the trans community here at Bassett," she says. "We need to change aspects of the whole system. And that is a collaborative effort."

Dr. Wolf-Gould's piece forms chapter six of "Leading Community Based Changes in the Culture of Health in the US," edited by Claudia S.P. Fernandez and Giselle Corbie-Smith at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The open source book is free and available to read or download here: https://www.intechopen.com/books/8794.