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Standards of Care (SOC) are used by
doctors for a range of physical conditions. They
are written protocols or guidelines used to guide
the treatment of patients in specific areas of
healthcare.
There are Standards of Care for many different
forms of medical treatments, like diabetes or
headache diagnosis to Alzheimer management.
Standards of Care have the goal to
- standardise and
- improve the quality of medical care
and as well as
- reduce risk (to patients and
healthcare providers) and
- achieve the best balance between cost and
medical outcome.
Before the 1960s, there was no consensus
agreement on the care and management of patients
seeking treatment for transsexualism. In response,
the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria
Association (HBIGDA) authored one of the earliest
sets of clinical guidelines for the management and
treatment of patients presenting with gender
identity conditions.
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The Harry Benjamin Standards of Care have
been updated and revised as new scientific
information becomes available. The most recent
version six was released February 2001. The first
version was released in 1979. Revisions through the
years have been in 1980, 1981, 1990, and 1998.
While the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care are
the most well known, there are SOCs modeled off
these guidelines in the Netherlands, Germany and
Italy.
The Harry Benjamin SOCs are meant "to be minimum
requirements" and accept "clinical departures
from these guidelines may come about because of a
patient's unique anatomic, social, or psychological
situation".
The Standards state they are intended to be used
as guidelines "to provide flexible directions for
the treatment of persons with gender identity
disorders."
Click here to read the most recent version of
the Harry
Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria
Association's Standards Of Care For Gender Identity
Disorders, Sixth Version. (external
link)
Further Reading
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Standards of Care
