In honor of Pride Month, the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) Somerset Babs Siperstein PROUD Center and RWJUH PROUD Gender Center of New Jersey located in New Brunswick, will host a free webinar series throughout June tailored to the LGBTQ+ community. The webinar series, taking place Tuesday afternoons, will address a variety of topics including family planning, HIV prevention and workplace acceptance and experiences.
On Tuesday, June 15, from 12:30pm-1:30pm, the “31 Ways to Create a Family” educational workshop on LGBTQ+ family building will feature experts from the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science (IRMS) at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, an RWJBarnabas Health facility. During this webinar, experts will discuss the many ways a family can be created and fertility options such as egg freezing, intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The “PrEP! Talk” webinar will take place on Tuesday, June 22, from 12:00pm-1:00pm. Hosted by representatives from RWJUH Somerset’s Babs Siperstein PROUD Center, the Zufall Health Center and the Hyacinth Foundation, in this session attendees can learn more about PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) and its effectiveness in preventing HIV. The session is designed to be an interactive conversation and questions are encouraged.
The “PROUD Meet & Greet Panel: Creating Community” will take place on Tuesday, June 29 from 12:00pm-1:00pm. In this session, attendees can meet the LGBTQ+ leaders serving the LGBTQ+ community from the RWJUH Somerset Babs Siperstein PROUD Center and the RWJUH Gender Center of NJ. Panelists will discuss their personal experiences navigating their own identities, share important resources and engage in a discussion around what it means to be “out and proud” in the workforce as LGBTQ+ community members.
“For far too long, LGBTQ+ health has been an afterthought in the health care community,” said Jackie Baras, MSN, MBA, RN, LGBT Program Director and LGBT Health Navigator for RWJUH. “Providing high quality, culturally competent health care to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is our priority, and we are excited to be able to offer resources through this webinar series to further address their unique health care needs.”
“We’re very much committed to the LGBTQ+ community and it is our priority to make patients feel comfortable, respected and not discriminated against or treated differently because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Paula Gutierrez, Director, Diversity and Inclusion, RWJUH Somerset and Director, Babs Siperstein PROUD Center. “We’re continuing to look for opportunities to better serve these patients.”
RWJUH Somerset’s Babs Siperstein PROUD Center, which opened in January 2017 in the hospital’s Somerset Family Practice and at the time, the first of its kind in the state, provides services tailored to meet the unique health care needs of the LGBTQ+ community in a safe, supportive environment. Services include primary medical care for children and adults, hormone therapy and monitoring, HIV care, health education, counseling, support groups and referrals for specialty services such as behavioral health services. Since opening as part of the hospital’s Family Practice, the Center has now expanded to its own space and is open for appointments five days a week with dedicated staff, including a patient navigator, a team of nurses and a new PrEP counselor. In addition to comprehensive medical services, the Center holds an array of support groups, including ‘PROUD Transitions – Transgender Family Support Group’. Led by facilitators from the transgender community, the group helps parents, spouses, partners and adult children better understand and cope with their transgender family members.
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) in partnership with Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has established The PROUD Gender Center of New Jersey, a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary program that is designed to address the transgender community’s health care needs and serve a referral center for advanced procedures. The Center specializes in transgender health that offers a broad range of hormonal therapy and surgical procedures to support the transition of transgender patients. To learn more about our comprehensive services such as Gender affirming surgeries, hormone therapy, vocal training and more, visit: https://www.rwjbh.org/rwj-university-hospital-new-brunswick/treatment-care/lgbtqia-program/proud-gender-center-transgender-community-servic/
For more information and to register for the webinar series, please visit: www.rwjbh.org/SomersetEvents.
For more information about RWJUH Somerset’s Babs Siperstein PROUD Center or to schedule an appointment, call 1-855- PROUD-FH (1-855-776-8334) or visit www.rwjbh.org/somersetproud
For more information or to access PROUD Gender Center of New Jersey services, please call 1-833-PROUD-NJ (77683-65) or visit www.rwjbh.org/rwjuhlgbtqia