I feel very privileged to be the program director, as a Cree Métis and British Columbian. I also identify as two-spirit, and am the proud parent of a 29-year-old.
We've submitted a brief for your reference, with 10 recommendations in it, and we'll be focusing our presentation today on health and wellness for transgender, gender-diverse and indigenous trans and two-spirit individuals in Canada.
Trans Care BC is a provincially funded program, created in 2015. We have a mandate to coordinate and improve trans health and well-being services across the province of B.C. The first of its kind in Canada, the program was developed to build and improve timely and relevant health care options for transgender British Columbians.
The work of Trans Care BC has been guided by the expertise of those with lived experience accessing gender-affirming care, along with health care providers and researchers. Trans Care BC's focus is on building capacity in the health care system, care provider education and increasing access to person-centred care closer to home.
As you've likely heard from other presenters, gender diversity is a natural part of human diversity that's existed across time and cultures. We're using the word trans today as an umbrella term, to include a wide range of people whose felt sense of gender differs from the expectations of gender based on the sex assigned to them at birth.