University of Oklahoma Children's Hospital facilitates transition surgeries for kids under 16
ASCA affiliated school counselors promote collaborations with hospitals that offer hormone therapy and gender surgeries to underage students.
OU Children’s Hospital (OUCH) in Oklahoma City, boasts on its website that the hospital is “the only interdisciplinary clinic in the state that provides gender affirming care to patients under the age of 16 years.”
According to the OUCH website, child and adolescent participants in the "Roy G. Biv Program,” have access to a wide “scope” of “gender affirming treatment” that includes access to hormone blockers used for “pausing puberty” and help to find “surgeons who perform gender affirming surgeries.”
The name for the program is taken from an acronym (ROYGBIV) commonly used to help elementary aged children learn and remember the colors of the rainbow. The rainbow is now politically synonymous with the LGBTQ “PRIDE” flag — a flag that has become an ever more common adornment in the halls of Oklahoma k-12 schools.
The website also states that the children’s hospital collaborates with k-12 schools to offer underage medical transition services. While the hospital website does not specify the extent of the collaboration or the specific points of contact, a recent study written for American School Counselors Association’s Professional Journal, strongly indicates that the connection for collaboration between OU Children’s Hospital and surrounding schools may be through ASCA affiliated school counselors:
“Indeed, the ASCA National Model requires school counselors to become proficient in addressing the complex needs for school, families, and community mental health supports and services among students who may experience environments that are culturally different and less resourced from those of the counselors… School–Family–Community Relationships, which includes eight items pertaining to engagement and communication between the school and a student’s family or between the school and community and institutional mental health supports and services (i.e., hospitals and community mental health providers).”1
In 2021, the OU Board of Regents voted to make OU Children’s Hospital a part of the unified University of Oklahoma health and medical system and as such, is supported by state and federal tax dollars.
OU Board of Regents Approves FY22 Budget, Definitive Agreement to Create State’s First Integrated Academic Health System, and More
“The Regents also approved the definitive agreement to merge the College of Medicine’s faculty practice, OU Health Physicians, with OU Health hospitals. The merging of the hospitals, clinics and faculty practice into one unified organization creates Oklahoma’s first truly integrated, comprehensive academic health system.”
In the announcement for the merger, OU President Joseph Harroz, touted the ease and innovations in treatment that the OU health merger would produce:
“In the past, Oklahomans have traveled to other states to find treatment options fueled by the innovation that comes when researchers and physicians work side-by-side in academic hospital settings,” said Harroz.
by Mark Ousley, September 15, 2022
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2156759X221087653