The Lanzarote Health Area, attached to the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, has launched the Accompaniment Unit for Trans People (UAT), a new service located in the Titerroy Health Center by health professionals who develop a process of accompaniment, support and individualized advice to the users of this Unit.
The implementation of this UAT is part of the Health Care Protocol for Trans people in the Canary Islands, which establishes a specific care circuit to facilitate the personal development and quality of life of all people involved.
The unit, which will provide assistance to a total of 32 people, is composed of a health team that offers comprehensive assistance and tries to respond to the needs and difficulties that may arise throughout the process.
Comprehensive assistance
The first attention in this service is based on an initial reception through an interview with the Unit manager, who performs a personalized assessment. From that moment on, and guided by the expectations and needs of each patient, an individualized accompaniment, support and advice process is designed based on the principle of free self-determination of identity and gender expression, and also ensuring clinical safety in the health care of trans people.
Next, the Unit manager provides detailed information on the prescribed treatments, the stages of the process and assesses the referral to other specialists in the Endocrinology, Gynecology, Urology, Phoniatrics, etc. services.
The health professionals in charge of the UAT have gone through a previous training period by the coordination of the Accompaniment to Trans People service of the Canary Islands Health Service (Transcan).
The director of Primary Care of Lanzarote, Aniuska Sutil, highlights the importance of the implementation of this service for Lanzarote's health and states that "the UAT allows to attend in a close and adequate way to those people who demand the service and guarantees the advice and necessary information of the users, whether adults or minors, and their families, trying to guarantee, thus, a better quality of life for the people".