Transgender Youth Face Increased Trauma in Hospitals

Lack of Uniform Treatment Standards and Legal Restrictions Compound Mental Health Crises

Transgender youth in crisis are sometimes placed in hospital units inconsistent with their gender identity, leading to increased trauma.
North Carolina lacks uniform treatment standards across hospitals and runs low on money and staff with proper training to treat transgender kids in crisis.
Major medical associations warn of grave mental health consequences for children forced to wait until adulthood to access puberty-blocking drugs, hormones and, in rare cases, surgeries.
North Carolina law bars medical professionals from providing hormones, puberty blockers and gender-transition surgeries to anyone under 18.
New state funding for mental health services in North Carolina has enabled UNC Hospitals to open a 54-bed youth behavioral health facility, which promises to take a whole-family approach and place nearly every patient in an individual room on a co-ed floor.