SCOTLAND’S biggest health board is to deliver material on transgender issues to schools as it works to end the stigma for patients.

The Gender Identity Service at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is producing educational material on relationships, sexual health and parenthood to teach pupils about transgender issues.

The move comes after as many as 335 adults were referred to the specialist service from October 2016, with another 215 young people also seen by the team.

Rhoda MacLeod, head of sexual health, says the development is part of broader moves to tackle prejudice suffered by patients, with a new strategic plan drawn up.

The Scottish Transgender Alliance found more than 60 per cent of transgender people have experienced harassment from strangers, with more than half discriminated against by colleagues.

The Gender Identity Service, based at the Sandyford clinic in Glasgow, said many of its patients transitioning from one sex to another have faced such abuse.

MacLeod told The National: “We are increasingly seeing a rise in referrals to the Gender Identity Service. We are making a concerted push on cutting waiting times for the young people and adult services, and maximising patients’ wellbeing.

“A new strand to the strategic plan is developing a positive experience for transgender people using sexual health services. We are determined to play a key role in ending the stigma people can experience and creating a better understanding of transgender issues.

“For the first time, the service will produce relationships, sexual health and parenthood education material for schools to include transgender specific issues.”

The plan follows a four-month consultation which drew almost 300 responses.

Radiotherapy assistant Marie Shand, who has transitioned from male to female, says education is key to tackling the prejudice she has suffered in public and at work.

The 44-year-old, who works at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow, told how one service user refused to call her by her name, instead referring to her as “mister”. Shand, who backs the new strategy, said: “I told him, ‘you can call me Marie, hen or miss’, but he kept referring to me as a guy. I went to my management and they spoke to the patient.

“Most people I meet haven’t come across another trans person. In a hospital, you get a lot of people watching and commenting. If you go up and explain how hurtful what they’re saying is, most of them are quite apologetic. They just haven’t realised.

“If you don’t educate people, they won’t know.”

Shand was first referred to the Gender Identity Service a decade ago, but a lack of support meant it took several years for her to begin her transition.

She credits NHS managers and workmates, as well as the Unite union, for helping her to begin the process second time around.

Before she was “always ashamed”, but now has new-found confidence, much of which is down to positive relationships with her patients. She said: “I’m super happy, really content. I feel very positive about the future.

“It used to be that I’d really feel fearful when approaching patients. I really didn’t have any confidence in myself. That has changed. There are lots more people coming forward, especially young kids. They need people they can look up to and relate to.

“Patients give me gifts and cards and tell me not to listen to anybody who puts me down. They really are number one – that’s what gets us up in the morning, we want to make their journey through cancer as positive as possible.”