Deirdre Shires

Professional Bio

Deirdre brings a public health background to her degree work, having worked in tobacco use reduction at the Voices of Detroit Initiative and as a health services coordinator for Affirmations Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Ferndale. Now a research project manager at Henry Ford Health System's Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research, she chose Wayne State's social work doctoral program for its flexibility and supportive doctoral faculty. A 2015-16 CSWE/ NASW Foundation Social Work HEALS Doctoral Fellow, Deirdre has coauthored nearly a dozen academic articles and presented her research across the United States, garnering national media attention for her findings on health disparities and health care discrimination among transgender individuals. She has held research positions at University of Michigan, where she earned her M.S.W., and University of Illinois at Chicago, where she earned a Master of Public Health. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Michigan State University.

Research/Dissertation

Deirdre's research interests include studying the social, institutional, and structural causes of health disparities in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. In particular, she is interested in the collection of sexual orientation and gender identity data in service provision and research; behavioral health disparities in the LGBT community; and barriers LGBT patients face when accessing health care. For her dissertation, Deirdre is surveying more than 400 health care providers at Henry Ford Health System to: 1) describe attitudes towards, knowledge of, clinical/personal experience with transgender men and women, as well as willingness to treat transgender patients; 2) determine the influence of physician/staff characteristics, transgender health knowledge, clinical/personal experience with transgender individuals, and attitudes towards transgender individuals on willingness to treat them; and 3) examine health system norms, policies, and resources that may influence health care for transgender individuals.

Why It's Important

The limited data capturing transgender individuals' experience with the health care system suggest widespread discrimination and mistreatment. In 2008, the National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that nearly one quarter reported being denied health care services outright, and nearly half of those who did receive care provided no or limited information on their gender identity status to their physician due to fears of experiencing bias or being denied care. Associate Social Work Professor Kim Jaffee, who mentors Deirdre on her dissertation, said Deirdre's research can help advance the federal government's goal - as stated in its Healthy People 2020 initiative and the Affordable Care Act of 2010 - to eliminate health disparities among the transgender population. "The transgender community is underserved, and prior studies suggest that healthcare providers and medical staff have not received adequate training to meet their unique needs," Deirdre said. "We need to understand what barriers physicians face so we can support them in providing high-quality care to this population."

Faculty Support

Chaired by Jaffee, Deirdre's dissertation committee includes Assistant Social Work Professor Jun Sung Hong, Associate Social Work Professor Debra Patterson, and Michael Woodford, associate social work professor at Wilfrid Laurier University at Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Jaffee praises Deirdre's "passion, intellectual curiosity, openness to critique, and pleasant demeanor," as well as her tenacity and capacity to work as an independent researcher. "Our discussions with regard to the theoretical and methodological challenges of her research have enriched my own understanding of LGBTQ health and well-being," Jaffee said. "Additionally, I have been quite impressed with her ability to work across disciplines in both her grant work at Henry Ford and her own scholarship." Deirdre has worked closely with several doctoral faculty and co-authored a number of manuscripts with Jaffee as well as Jamie Mitchell (University of Michigan), Jennifer Elston Lafata (Virginia Commonwealth University/Henry Ford Health System), and others.