Community Healthcare Network Hosts 6th Annual Transgender Health Conference

Community Healthcare Network (CHN) will host its 6th annual Transgender Health Conference on October 7 at Pace University. The conference will be comprised of a keynote address, a clinical and a behavioral track, and a series of breakout sessions covering transition-related care training for clinical providers.

Topics will include surgical care, medical-legal issues, the social determinants of health, microaggressions, and other vital information for primary medical care providers and specialists, social workers, public health professionals, community advocates, medical researchers, epidemiologists, scientists, and other professionals from across the disciplines of public health.

Dr. Rachel Levine, the event's keynote speaker, is currently Physician General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine. In becoming Pennsylvania's fourth Physician General -- and being appointed to Governor Wolf's cabinet -- she became the highest-ranking openly transgender person in state government history, joining only a handful of other transgender women serving in government office nationally.

"The conference will help us better provide the transgender population with comprehensive healthcare," said Freddy Molano, Vice President of Infectious Diseases and LGBTQ Programs, Community Healthcare Network. "This will ultimately reduce the rising costs of healthcare in New York State by avoiding unnecessary hospital visits and neglected follow-up care."

Presenters include representatives from the NYS Department of Health, including the AIDS Institute and Bureau of HIV Prevention and Control, representatives from Mt. Sinai, senior leadership from Medicaid Special Needs health Plan Amida Care, and experts in clinical and behavioral care for transgender individuals, among others. A full copy of the program agenda, and background on all speakers is available on the conference website at: http://www.chnnyc.org/6th-annual-conference-transgender-health.

"Amida Care is proud to support the CHN Transgender Health Conference as the lead health plan sponsor. Platforms like this conference are critical to create a dialogue and shed light on the barriers to health care that the transgender community faces, including violence, an HIV epidemic, lack of employment opportunities, and discrimination," said Doug Wirth, President and CEO of Amida Care. "We must work together to break down these barriers. Quality health care is a right, not a privilege."

Transgender people have specific healthcare concerns and oftentimes face bias, discrimination, or ignorance when seeking medical care. CHN understands these concerns, and offers a unique and welcoming environment with high quality medical care. The organization, which founded its Transgender Program in 2003 due to a lack of HIV outreach services in the transgender community, is leading the field in transgender care.

CHN is the first New York City-based Health Center to provide comprehensive services to patients of transgender experience in a family health setting. CHN serves nearly 450 transgender patients annually at their Bronx Health Center in the South Bronx, Family Health Center located in Jamaica, Queens and the CABS Health Center located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Community Healthcare Network (CHN) is a not-for-profit organization providing access to affordable, culturally-competent and comprehensive community-based primary care, dental, nutrition, mental health and social services for diverse populations in 12 underserved communities throughout New York City.

CHN serves more than 85,000 individuals a year who would otherwise have little or no access to critical health care. CHN is composed of eleven Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and NCQA designated Level 3 Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMH) and a mobile health unit.

The Community Healthcare Network 6th Annual Conference on Transgender Health will be held from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on October 7 at Pace University- Schimmel Center, New York, NY