About the Project
This project is interested in understanding young people's thoughts, feelings, and experiences seeking out and/or accessing medical interventions (puberty blockers and/or gender affirming hormones) from a gender service as minors (under 18) in Australia. Specifically, this research team is interested in exploring whether young people felt there were requirements or expectations they had to meet in order to access gender services. By exploring these experiences, we hope to understand how young adults feel clinical guidelines* informed and shaped their journeys within a gender service and how these guidelines might be improved.
By speaking with young adults about their first-hand experience, we hope to inform health policy and guidelines and offer patient-led recommendations.
*Clinical guidelines are professional guidelines that guide clinicians' decision making and outline criteria for diagnosis or accessing specific care/services.
We are looking for participants who:
- are 18-25 years old
- are comfortable undertaking an interview in English
- sought out and/or accessed gender services as minor in Australia
Participation in Interviews
On the day of your interview, our peer worker will reach out to you to make sure you feel comfortable and able to participate in the interview. All interviews will be conducted over the phone or via zoom. Interviews will last approximately 45-60 minutes. Interviews will be audio recorded to allow for interview transcription and will be held in strict confidence with the research team. Only the research team will have access to transcribed interviews.
You will have the option to choose a pseudonym for your interview to be recorded under. Pseudonyms allow you to own your story within the research project while accounting for confidentiality of young adults and third parties.
You will be compensated for your time and contribution to the project.
If you are interested in participating in our project, please complete the interest form found below. You will be screened for eligibility criteria before being notified regarding your participation in the project.
Interested in participating? Please contact Meaghan at the email below.
Research Advisory Council
During the development of this project, a Research Council of community members was established to provide insight and feedback on this project. We would like to thank our council members for generously sharing their knowledge, insight, and experience:
Dr. Arlie Alizzi, Dylan McBurney, Jessica Sutherland, Dr. Michelle Dutton, Ricki Spencer
About the Researchers
Principal Investigator: Meaghan Storey (sher/her)
Meaghan Storey is a PhD candidate at the University of Manchester and the University of Melbourne. She holds a Bachelor of Science from McGill University and a Master of Arts in Healthcare Ethics and Law from the University of Manchester. Meaghan’s Masters research focused on an ethical analysis of the Bell v Tavistock case in the United Kingdom with her Masters dissertation entitled, ‘Rethinking Bell: A Queer Analysis of Harm and the Need to Reprioritise Psychological Distress’.
Peer Worker: Jessica Sutherland (she/they)
Jessica is a mental health peer support worker specialising in co-design, storytelling, and recovery-oriented support. Her praxis is grounded in lived experiences of neurodiversity, disability, queerness, and trauma. While studying health sciences and peer support with Deakin University and Orygen, she is the Vice President of Deakin’s Disability Neurodivergency Association and working in senior-secondary education reform with the Victorian Department of Education.
Supervisory Team:
Dr. Lynn Gillam (she/her), University of Melbourne
Dr. Ken Pang (he/him), University of Melbourne
Dr. Simona Giordano (she/her), University of Manchester
Dr. Fae Garland (she/her), University of Manchester
Funding
This project is funded by the Cookson Scholar’s Award – a dual scholarship available through the University of Melbourne and the University of Manchester.
Ethics Approval
This project has been approved by the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC) at the University of Manchester (Reference number: 2023-16240-32084) and Human Ethics Team at the University of Melbourne (Reference number: 2023-27289-47934-5).
If you have any questions, please contact:
Meaghan Storey
storeym@student.unimelb.edu.au
meaghan.storey@manchester.ac.uk
If you have any concerns, please contact:
Lynn Gillam
lynn.gillam@rch.org.au
We acknowledge and pay respect to the Traditional Owners of the lands upon which the University of Melbourne and this research project is situated.
Version 1.3, 05/12/2023