You can just imagine the pressure from outside groups - I'd guess that the parent with two children in the service who visited the board might have been from this group.
"The appropriate management of Gender Dysphoria in children and adolescents is contentious and debated in the absence of an adequate evidence base. A currently small number of families, usually associated with a long standing parents support/pressure group, have been vociferous about their frustration with our protocol for physical intervention. Specifically, the time taken to complete a comprehensive assessment of Gender Dysphoria prior to referral for physical intervention is referred to as “a delay in treatment” and there is increasing pressure to offer cross sex hormones from the age of 14 years, rather than the current 16 years. Adult services continue to have long waiting lists, this creates problems for some older service users who are keen to move to adult services to pursue surgical interventions and places a strain on the GIDS resources, as until they are on a stable hormonal regimen it is not appropriate to discharge service users over 18 years old to their GP."
"The board were visited at the start of their meeting by Ms E, her son F (12) and her daughter G (11); the children were both patients of the Trust. The children explained something of their experience in coming to the Trust, and their experiences with the clinicians they had seen. The NEDs drew out some of the things they would like to see done differently, which included a Minecraft server for all the children at the Tavistock to use, and talked about how it was to leave school each week to come in for their appointments.
Ms E explained that she also received therapy from the Trust once a week, and it was a great space to talk about her children and other topics. She commented that you could feel isolated as a parent, and wondered if there was a way to raise the profile of the opportunities for joining groups. She commented that the second time they had been referred it had taken 3 months to be seen whilst the service lined up the best person, and whilst she understood the delay and had received an explanation in advance, some parents might find it helpful to have someone they could call in that situation. She noted that having the Trust liaise with the school was essential, and the Trust needed to be proactive in doing this.
Ms Greatley thanked all three for coming and sharing their experiences with the Trust."