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Advisory group for aged care

Started by Cindy, March 31, 2016, 02:57:11 AM

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Cindy

I've just had a call out of the blue.

Would I join an advisory group for aged care issues for a major aged care provider in Aus as I can bring a TG perspective.

They are even going to pay me!

So post your fears, concerns etc so I can bring them up!
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suzifrommd

Quote from: Cindy on March 31, 2016, 02:57:11 AM
So post your fears, concerns etc so I can bring them up!

My big concern is that I'm going to end up in some communal living situation (retirement community, assisted living, nursing home, hospice, etc.) where some of the residents or staff will be transphobic. At that point I can't just avoid transphobic people the way I do now, since I'm dependent on them.

This is tied to the fear that my passability will slip as I get older. That I'll no longer be able to keep my voice feminine 24/7, my fat will recede making my male bone structure more evident. I'll be more vulnerable to being clocked and harassed in public.

Of course I'm experiencing issues already. Single people are more vulnerable to life's hard knocks and the older and less physically attractive I get, the less likely it is I will be able to turn a romantic partnership into a life partnership. Younger folk tend to be a lot more accepting of trans people than my generation.
Have you read my short story The Eve of Triumph?
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Asche

Related to Suzi's concern, I and a number of my older trans friends are afraid that when we end up in some sort of assisted living situation we will be treated as our birth sex and be gender-policed on that basis.

One trans man I know is in his 70's and not the best of health and went through SRS simply to insure that he would be treated as a man if/when he ends up in a nursing home.

For myself, before I decided to transition, but was already dressing in more or less feminine clothes everywhere but work, I worried that I would someday be forced to go into assisted living and forced to give up my skirts and dresses &c.  I've heard stories about nursing homes forcing their inmates to do what the operators consider best for them and not respecting their wishes.  E.g., when friends of my parents went into assisted living, the husband was forced (arm-twisted?) to give up his computers.  He declined rather rapidly after that.
"...  I think I'm great just the way I am, and so are you." -- Jazz Jennings



CPTSD
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AnonyMs

Quote from: suzifrommd on March 31, 2016, 05:18:55 AM
My big concern is that I'm going to end up in some communal living situation (retirement community, assisted living, nursing home, hospice, etc.) where some of the residents or staff will be transphobic. At that point I can't just avoid transphobic people the way I do now, since I'm dependent on them.

Hopefully by the time it happens society will be more accepting, and the staff at least, being younger, will be accepting.

On the whole though I find the entire thing rather horrifying and hope I die before I get there.
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FTMDiaries

Ditto the concerns above. More specifically, my concern would be about personal care - particularly if I were to become frail or infirm. Certainly in my neck of the woods, care homes tend to assign female carers to female patients and male carers to male patients, particularly if the patient needs to get naked or partially naked for anything (e.g. toilet, bathing, dressing, medical check-ups etc.).

How will they decide which type of carer is appropriate for a trans patient? A transphobic manager may well assign someone of our birth sex to care for us, which in my case would be hugely inappropriate and a violation of my person - and I daresay many here would feel the same way. And that's just us binary folk: how would they decide who to assign to a non-binary person?

Either way, would those carers respect us? Would they mock, bully or abuse us for perhaps having non-standard body parts? Once I've had bottom surgery I'll need the occasional checkup and replacement of the equipment involved, and I'll also need occasional checkups for some other problems I have acquired as a result of having my kids. Would they be able to keep an eye on these things? And could they remain professional whilst doing so?

Have they considered the sort of health care we may continue to need as we age, such as (perhaps) prostate checks for trans women and cervical smears for trans men? I've had some nasty dealings with health care 'professionals' whose bedside manner and lack of tact has been very difficult for me to cope with. I dread to encounter the same whilst in an even more vulnerable position.

Good grief... what if I were to get some form of dementia, regressing to an earlier state of my life, and forget that I'd transitioned? This will almost certainly happen to some of us. Have care homes thought of this eventuality? How will it be managed? Will the patient be consulted about their wishes (if this is possible)? Is it possible that a transphobic care home manager will force us to live in a gender-inappropriate way if that happens?

If any of the above were to happen, I'd be booking a one-way ticket to Switzerland.





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suzifrommd

Quote from: FTMDiaries on March 31, 2016, 10:37:20 AM
Good grief... what if I were to get some form of dementia, regressing to an earlier state of my life, and forget that I'd transitioned?

*Shudders*
Have you read my short story The Eve of Triumph?
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