Lancs LGBT

Trans Health Needs Assessment

Lancashire LGBT is currently working to co-produce a Health Needs Assessment (HNA) for the trans and gender diverse (TGD) population of Lancashire in collaboration with Public Health Collaborative (Public Health Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen and Lancashire), and with other voluntary sector partners.

We will be looking at the health needs and challenges experienced by TGD people in Lancashire. This includes levels of physical and mental health and wellbeing as well as activities that contribute to good or bad health, for example smoking, drinking alcohol and physical activity. We will also look at things like housing, employment and education, which affect how healthy people are able to be, and at healthcare and other services.

There is research from the UK and other countries that suggests that TGD people face particular health challenges. These are not just the needs that may be connected directly with gender identity, like Gender Identity Services. TGD people also face barriers to getting to services, including healthcare, and experience discrimination and harassment.

However, there is much that we don’t know about TGD health needs, especially locally. The aim of this project is to better understand the situation in Lancashire so that we can effectively target efforts to improve health for TGD people.

Stages

The HNA can be broken down into different stages:

  • Literature Review
  • Survey
  • Focus groups
  • Interviews with health practitioners
  • Analysis
  • Final report (published by end of 2024)

Current stage

The HNA is currently at the survey stage

This survey is for people who:

  • are trans or identify with a gender different to the one they were registered at birth
  • are aged 16 or above
  • live, work or primarily access services in Lancashire, including Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool

It should take about 15-20 minutes to complete. Once completed, you will be invited to register interest in attending an in-person or online focus groups.

The questions in the survey are a mixture of tick boxes and free text boxes for you to give more in-depth answers if you want to. Do not feel like you have to write a lot, or anything at all, in every text box. Some of these questions are personal and sensitive. If there are any questions you would prefer not to answer, you can leave them blank. Where you do give us more information, such as in a text box, we may quote what you’ve said in a report. We will make sure that it is anonymous so no one will know that these are your words.

You can take part in the survey by following this link: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/TGDHNA

Next stage

The next stage of the HNA will be the focus group stage

The focus groups are for people who:

  • are trans or identify with a gender different to the one they were registered at birth
  • are aged 16 or above
  • live, work or primarily access services in Lancashire, including Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool

The focus groups will be 1.5-2 hours long. The group will discuss the topics raised in the survey.

Dates for the focus groups will be added here shortly.