Students at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Bloomington have opened a new clinic, The Gender Diverse and Queer Clinic (GDQC), devoted to the provision of “LGBTQ+ Competent” care to all members of the community, including those uninsured or underinsured. The GDQC seeks to address the noticeable lack of specialized care for diverse populations in south central Indiana, as well as to give medical students the opportunity to gain real-world experience through service to the community.
Marissa Vander Missen, a fourth-year medical student, serves as a chair for the GDQC, and explained the significance of the clinic’s founding. “We want to provide an LGBTQ+-competent care home, as well as earlier education for our medical students to take in a population in a great teaching setting,” Vander Missen said.
The GDQC is open to all members of the south central Indiana community, regardless of one’s sexuality or gender identity, but it hopes to meet the specific needs of those who may be a part of a LGBTQ+ community. Rather than simply being “LGBTQ+ friendly,” which some providers may say about themselves, the GDQC has made the distinction that its services are “LGBTQ+ Competent,” which is understood to require a greater degree of specialized training.
Vander Missen explains that “LGBTQ+ Competent” care necessitates a knowledge of demographic-specific risk factors and the particular mental health challenges that diverse populations may be experiencing. Moreover, an understanding of safe-sex practices and formal training with gender-diverse individuals are key to creating “LGBTQ+ Competent” services.
“We’ve been trained on PrEP and PEP, HIV, safer sex, STI prevention; we’ve been trained on domestic violence and how it individually affects the LGBTQ+ population,” said Vander Missen. “That is what separates us, and what we’re excited to put into practice.”
The Gender Diverse and Queer Clinic currently offers primary care, mental health care, and sexually-transmitted infections (STI) testing. In the future, it hopes to include hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which is a controlled substance with an authorization process.The GDQC hosted its first clinic on October 19 and will continue to host clinics on a Saturday of each month. However, it hopes to open more frequently in the future.
Photo courtesy of the Gender Diverse and Queer Clinic
