Ways to improve encounters with transgender patients

During CHA’s June webinar on spiritual care for people who are transgender, a ministry chaplain shared recommendations on how to better serve them.

Jamez Terry, a chaplain with the Children’s Hospital at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, shared on the call six practical steps spiritual care providers at ministry facilities can take when offering services to people who are transgender and their loved ones.

Those steps are:

Recognize the hurt that religion may have caused or may be causing for them. Terry said many transgender people have felt or currently feel alienated from the church and harmed by the church.

Understand that spiritual care is not being provided in a vacuum. Transgender people live in a society where many people prefer they not exist. This marginalization, Terry said, causes spiritual harm and many