Coronavirus Update:What patients and families need to know

Online Support Group for Parents

An electronic list serve is a closed email distribution list that permits a member to exchange emails with all the group members at the same time. List-serve members can post and read messages from other parents and moderators. The list-serves work as virtual support groups.

The Children’s Gender and Sexuality Advocacy and Education Program moderates two electronic list-serves for:

Parents of boys and girls
Parents of girls

Only invited members can access the list serves, and only parents are admitted. Interested parents are required to participate in a confidential telephone interview before joining the list-serve. Please contact this list-serve by e-mail at pgroup@childrensnational.org

Communications on the internet can be intercepted by third parties (such as hackers), and therefore we cannot guarantee confidentiality. However, we make reasonable efforts to lower the risk for the users. For example, we limit users to parents; we control the access; we screen prospective users through the intake process; We ask users to relate to what they read as confidential information and not to repeat it outside the group; Users can further protect their privacy by not using last names in their email address, and by not posting personal contact information.
You will be asked to complete a form with information about your child and your family. Our professional staff will review it and contact you to complete a telephone intake. During the intake the staff member will obtain further background information and will be available to discuss your concerns with you.
If participation is no longer an interest of yours, you may stop participating, by e-mailing the program and requesting to be dropped from the list.
A list serve or distribution list is an online system that allows users to communicate with the whole group through email. We use the list-serve system for our online parent support group. This virtual group allows parents to participate in discussions on topics such as parenting strategies and experiences, to share ideas and resources, and to receive and give emotional support. The discussions on the list serve are monitored by professionals.
The intake serves several purposes:
- It allows us to answer your questions about our program, and our list serve in detail
- It allows us to assess if the list serve is appropriate for you
- It allows YOU to assess if the list serve is appropriate for you
- In our experience, parents often have questions The intake provides an opportunity for us to hear about your experiences with you child and address some of the general basic recommendations about children with gender variant behavior
- It allows us to screen for issues that could require further professional help, and to make referrals when necessary and possible
Unless we specifically state it, your information will not be used for research purposes. If we would like to invite you to participate in a research study, we will ask you to sign a written consent.
If you would like to submit for reimbursement by your insurance, we will provide a statement indicating a consultation was performed. However we do not work directly with insurers regarding this one-time fee, the fee is your responsibility.