Chicago transgender health professionals presented a wealth of information about the unique needs and health risk factors applying to transgender people Oct. 28 during a meeting of the HIV Prevention Planning Group ( HPPG ) .
Among other issues related to trans health, the presentation focused on the preliminary findings of Project Smart, a survey funded by the Centers for Disease Control and subcontracted to the Howard Brown Health Center and the Chicago Department of Public Health ( CDPH ) in order to obtain information about the HIV risk factors for certain populationsin this case, the trans community.
Helena Bushong, a transgender health advocate who conducted interviews for Project Smart, facilitated the presentation. She spoke about the variety of distinct risk factors that apply to transgender individuals because "transgender" is an umbrella term for many types of people, and it knows no cultural or generational boundaries.
Among the issues mentioned were that transgender people live in low-income situations, they often receive illegal and unsafe injections from unlicensed practitioners and that there's a large sex worker population among them that often puts money before health.
"We're up against some tough decisions that people are having to make for survival," Bushong said.
The point of the presentation was to provide the HPPG with better knowledge about disease risk within the TG community and also how to do more effective outreach toward the quietest segment of the LGBT populationthe goal in mind being to channel funds toward transgender health in a way that will effectively reach and benefit the health needs of the TG community.
"The emphasis was on prevention and how to get in touch with such a hard to reach community," Bushong said. "… and we need to know how to place that [ funding ] ."
Other speakers who spoke were Pamela McCann from the CDPH's LGBT office, who spoke about effective social marketing toward the transgender community; Lois Bates, the trans health coordinator for Howard Brown; and Nikhil Prachand, who also works with Project Smart.
Bushong said a full report on the findings from the Project Smart survey may be available within the next few weeks and will be accompanied by another presentation.