Health Strategy for Women and Islanders Who Are Gender Diverse

Not everyone’s health needs are the same, the Prince Edward Island health care system should reflect that.

Research from across Canada and on Prince Edward Island indicates that women and people who are gender diverse experience differences with regard to health outcomes, interactions with health care services and professionals, and experiences with other social services that impact health and wellness. 

For optimal health and well-being, Islanders must be able to access the right services or combination of services at the right time. Women and Islanders who are gender diverse face some particular challenges in this regard. They may face more barriers or different barriers to access than men and Islanders who are cisgender respectively. They may also have more complex and multifaceted needs due to external social determinants and/or intersectionality factors. These challenges may be compounded for Islanders who are Black, Indigenous, or people of colour.

Awareness to Action: A Health Strategy for Women and Islanders Who Are Gender Diverse 2022-2027 aims to address those challenges in order to improve the health and well-being of women and Islanders who are gender diverse at every stage of their lives.

Development Process

A multi-sectoral Steering Committee oversaw extensive information gathering and engagement activities. A summary of the results of this work can be found in ‘Compendium of Research and Engagement Findings – Foundational work in the development of Awareness to Action: A Health Strategy for Women and Islanders Who Are Gender Diverse 2022-2027’.

Principles

The strategy is framed around eight (8) principles: equity; evidence informed; cultural safety and humility; awareness; diversity of voices; whole person approach; confidentiality; and safety.

Priority Areas

This strategy sets out measures four priority areas:

1. Create Welcoming Settings to reduce stigma experienced by women and people who are gender diverse, and to create welcoming environments.
2. Expand Available, Accessible Services and Care to respond to the health needs of women and gender diverse Islanders.
3. Integrate and Coordinate Services to improve networked pathways of care for health services targeted at women and people who are gender diverse.
4. Build and Share Knowledge about sex- and gender-based health determinants, differences, needs, and experiences and to apply that knowledge to improve services to women and gender diverse Islanders.

This Strategy proposes initiatives to address these priority areas.

Monitoring and oversight

The Strategy also sets out indicators to measure progress and an oversight committee to support further improvement during and after the Strategy. For more information on the oversight committee – Women and Gender Diverse People’s Health Council – visit Engage PEI.