About the Research and Researcher
Community Participatory Approach
The research conducted toward establishing nutrition care guidelines related to the food, nutrition, and eating issues of transgender and gender diverse people was undertaken using a participatory action research (PAR) approach. This means that the research team met with Pride groups to identify their issues and concerns toward the goal of taking action rather than learning for the sake of learning. We used a ‘progressive design’ meaning that as we learned something from one group and collaboratively made some decisions, we presented what we learned to the next group so that our understandings of the issues and concerns and potential next steps continued to develop.
Thus far, we have consulted with Acadia Pride, Truro Pride, and we conducted a community consultation during Halifax Pride. We sought input from conference delegates at the Canadian Professional Association for Trans Health (CPATH) conferences and Dietitians of Canada conferences, and through various dietitian Facebook groups.
We will continue using these approaches so that the work we do continues to resonate with transgender and gender diverse folx and with health and human service professionals.
Dr. Catherine Morley (she/they)
 |
My interest in the food, nutrition, and eating issues of transgender and gender diverse people stemmed from observing changes in my eldest child's body composition when they started transitioning. At the time, I taught Principles of Nutrition Assessment, a 2nd year course in the BSc Nutrition program at Acadia. I was embarrassed and saddened to realize that I had never thought about approaches to nutritional care beyond the gender binary of male and female. When I looked for information on working with gender diverse people, I came up with nothing! So, I thought, “Hey, I know how to conduct research” and so I began. |
My interest is in creating resources and nutrition care guidelines (NCG) for dietitians’ use when working with transgender and gender diverse people. Other resources will emerge as work progresses. It is gratifying and exciting to me that so many students at Acadia University and beyond are interested in participating in the research and writing processes.