| "Statewide and Specialist Mental Health Service Review", Australian Government, 4 May 2000 |
| | Consumer Groups: The main support/advocacy group for this client population is Transgender Victoria |
| | Case Coordination and Case Review: Case coordination is difficult to provide. The various specialists involved are encouraged to provide reports to Dr. Kennedy through the secretary to maintain an overview of each client. This does not always happen. The various people involved in the gender dysphoria service meet about once a month to discuss clients and other issues. These case conferences are unfunded. There is no secretarial support for these case conferences and so there is no dedicated note taker. |
| | Client Group: The service keeps details of persons referred and assessed but no one is employed to collect and sort this information. Only limited data is available as a result. There are currently 429 active patients at various stages of the assessment and treatment process. |
| | Referrals: The service receives 2-3 new referrals a week. |
| | Real Life Test: If the person is considered to be a potential candidate for surgery they are first required to live in the gender to which they wish to be reassigned for a period of 18 months. This is called the real life test. During this period medical treatment (eg hormone treatment) is provided through the endocrinologist in their private practice. |
| | Service Evaluation: The gender dysphoria clinic does not have outcome data available. The service collects considerable information regarding its clients but has no one to put the information together to provide an adequate evaluation of the service. |
| | Surgery: About 10% of people who are assessed would go on to surgery. |
| | Follow-up: The person is seen six weeks after surgery by the surgeon and the psychiatrist. Follow-up beyond this depends on the client. Many do not continue to attend. Most people are with the service approximately 3 years from beginning to end of contact. |
| "Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee Sexuality discrimination inquiry", Australian Government, 8 August 1996 |
| | Dr. Kennedy: Before we contemplate surgery, we try to do as much as we can from the point of view of psychological, psychiatric assessment. |
| | Dr. Kennedy: They (patients seeking sex reassignment) cannot go to any other states, because we all work together and we have a sort of interchange |