The People’s Health & Wellness Clinic in Barre, Vermont, is partnering with the Rainbow Bridge Community Center to launch free gender-affirming care services to all residents age 18 and older.
Reports VT Digger:
Shawna Trader is the executive director of the Rainbow Bridge Community Center, a nonprofit serving the LGBTQ+ community in Central Vermont that has partnered with the clinic to launch the effort. The 38-year-old Barre resident has also been receiving primary and gender-affirming care at the clinic for about two years.
“As a trans person and a leader in my queer community, it’s incredibly important that gender affirming care is available and accessible,” said Trader, who has 20 years of experience in health care. “We’ll have healthier and safer people out there just knowing that there’s a spot here in town that they can go to.”
Gender affirming care supports people whose gender identity does not match their assigned gender at birth. It includes a range of services from primary care to hormone therapy and surgery.
The free care, funded by a United Way grant, is already available at the Barre clinic to patients aged 18 and above, said Executive Director Daniel Barlow, and staff are being provided additional training.
Founded 30 years ago, the People’s Health & Wellness Clinic provides free health care to 600 people in Central Vermont annually, with the help of six staff members and 30 volunteer doctors and nurses, he said. It is part of a network of nine free nonprofit clinics across the state that aim to make health care more accessible to underserved populations.
Read the complete VT Digger story here.
More: phwcvt.org
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