UK Physios

@DomesticatedZombie, must admit, the law and political processes are not something I can easy get my pretty little head around.

I'm looking forward to reading some analysis by clever people of the JR findings next week.

I'm hoping that if we have a finding that TWANW in one area then it will allow debate for other areas - like whether my work loo is only for females or not. And whether if we are making my work loo uni sex we should be obliged to do an impact assessment of the females who use that loo.

The JR was specifically for public board representation.

I expect that the Judicial Review in Scotland might be helpful for him, even if it's Scots Law?

www.holyrood.com/news/view,scottish-government-lose-court-battle-over-redefinition-of-women

I think this means that in Scotland, TWANW. And so, my clinic gets to maintain single sex spaces.

While, this paper, means my clinic gets to use sex based language (article, I'll find the paper) spectator.com.au/2022/02/midwifery-language-dehumanisin-women/

Concerns about affirmation model www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bjpsych-bulletin/article/sex-gender-and-gender-identity-a-reevaluation-of-the-evidence/76A3DC54F3BD91E8D631B93397698B1A

Anyone know whether a physio has got into trouble over this stuff? Baroness Nicholson said she had evidence of 2 nurses who'd been sacked.

I KNOW! I'd really love to see lanyards weighing down staff's necks like athlete's showing off their gold medals at the Olympics.

It could be anything and from anyone - so a surgeon notices her office cleaner has a lanyard that says she's "trauma informed" and they have a chat and the surgeon learns something useful for clinical practice about dignity and privacy and maybe that explains why that nervy woman failed to return for her appointment. The cleaner sees the clinic, she knows what changes would make it easier for women who e.g. need to see the door at all times. The surgeon's been busy learning how to surge, she hasn't got insight into the nuance and won't realise the cleaner's skill base.

Who'd organise the lanyards? Well, the individual charities, I guess, they could agree a colour and individuals buy the lanyard because they know they have a skill which applies to a group who are protected.

I think the other groups should be running their own inclusion schemes. The Stonewall model is brilliant. It's become a source of harm, but it's principle is brilliant.

Why aren't there lanyards showing what each NHS individual can offer anyone with any protected characteristic?

This is a great idea.

I agree with you, by the way, @SomePosters. If I saw lanyards showing that someone had a link to say, Polish then I'd be able to ask "how do I say "good morning" in Polish?" as we pass on the corridor.

I'd very quickly figure out the basics of most languages hello/goodbye/thank you just by moving around the hospital.

It would transform building therapeutic relationships, and we have a huge resource with the diversity that exists in the NHS workforce. Which is totally unrecognised.

Why aren't there lanyards showing what each NHS individual can offer anyone with any protected characteristic?

Because only Stonewall has created a protected characteristic. It's gender reassignment which is protected, not gender. Stonewall have, basically, made it up. That was the finding of the court when a uni (I'm trying to remember, might have this wrong) was given incorrect advice. The judge said Stonewall had advised as they would like the law to be and not as the law actually is.

Who cares about people with learning disabilities? Who cares how many NHS employees have basic makaton? Who cares whether a scared, unwell patient without English has someone who's able to say "hello, I will look after you, we have a translator coming to help" in their language? Who cares whether someone in their late 80s who's taken their husband to A+E has her needs understood and someone offers her a chair to sit on while they wait for triage?

No one. No one cares about these people, or any of the other reasons - and if I was cynical enough to say it I'd say that's because none of those groups make money.

Stonewall gets what, 7m a year? They could change everything for trans health if they wanted to. They could fund research, they could build clinics, they could train staff - isn't it interesting that the MOST they do is sell rainbow lanyards and try to steal other people's rights?

I'd like to have a drink with Nancy Kelly. I don't think she'd enjoy it, but I have a list of things I'd really to chat to her about. I'd hope Ruth Hunt was free too. We'd have a grand wee chin wag.

Im hat would be phenomenally useful

My worry about speaking up and trying to find others is that individuals get squashed.

We need a way to ID other GC physios so we can link up.

A mumsnet wave?

Yes, it's the safeguarding that bothers me. Some physios get up close and personal, if we're assessing your back you'll be in your underwear bending and moving and we're peering at your body. It's quite different from nakedness during e.g. personal care, where the nurse will use sheets or towels to cover up the bits of you that aren't being attended to.

If you are self conscious or have been traumatised it's a big ask to bend over in your pants while someone stands behind you.

I'm very mindful of that. We can get a bit blasé about it, we look at bodies all the time and we're looking at the movement, not the body if that makes sense - but for the person, it can be a bit confronting. Safeguarding should be done and over done in our clinics.

Why don't you contact one of the other professional groups- eh there's one for ppl who work in birth/breastfeeding called 'with woman' and there's one for social workers. Ask them how they went about it and got the word out and what they do behind the scenes.

Surely a physio knows anatomy?

And surely a physio should recognise that when they work alone in a room with a patient who may be in a state of undress and/or vulnerable, that they need to really consider safeguarding - for them and their patients.

I believe I was assaulted by a male physio. Now that wasn't something I could identify out of.

Thanks for the summary, @Calyx72.

The thing that interests me is that Karen Middleton is not an idiot. I think her background was at the Dept of Health? She's got to be aware of the organisations leaving Stonewall and the trouble at universities.

I've been so tempted to just email her the Nolan Podcast and ask whether she thinks SW is good value for the money.

One voice is too easy to quash. The nurses and midwives had 400 signatures for this, anonymous, letter. I don't know what became of it, either. There must be a response by now?

womansplaceuk.org/2021/12/04/stonewall-nurses-and-midwives-speak-out/

Really good point @vivariumvivariumsvivaria

Calyx I'm a physio & share your views. There is a very vocal physio high up in my specialist area who is driving this agenda in the CSP I believe. She is hugely inspiring from a clinical perspective, but so misguided with this. Feel free to DM me.

@Calyx72 are you able to share what the post was about? Was it about the Stonewall podcast, or the open letter to the RCM or similar?

I don't want to get anyone into trouble - but I'm interested in the themes. Very sorry I missed the thread!

I did work with three trans physios, I don't want to say much about that because they all had a really hard time from the press.

I have family members and friends who are trans.

I'm as bleeding heart liberal as anyone who goes to work in health.

But, I am a woman and I understand trauma and I don't think it is reasonable to put vulnerable women into situations in health which are detrimental to them. I won't do it.

I don't wear a rainbow lanyard because I also don't wear one showing that I speak Punjabi, or that I have BSL, or that I have experience working with people with learning disabilities, or that I'm dementia friendly, or that I've got a good understanding of Islam, or any of the other protected characteristics.

If there were lanyards to make those people feel safe then maybe I would wear one.