NHS staff - time to make your views known

[NHSsurvey]

I've namechanged for this but recently saw that my Trust (a Stonewall champion naturally) had snuck in a Trans inclusion policy earlier this year that sets out all the usual pro self-ID policies (can use facilities of choice etc. etc.) and more worrying that Trans people should be placed on single sexed wards of their preference (Trans is clearly defined as anyone who self IDs at any stage of transition)

Given the horrible record of sexual assaults on vulnerable patients on NHS wards as it stands, I would love to know the risk assessment that took place to change this policy (I'm guessing none - just wanting their rainbow star sticker).

Anyway it's staff survey time, so I would like to encourage any NHS staff to make sure they comment on policies that were introduced that affect their rights and privacy - especially if they weren't consulted and especially in regard to the NHS values of 'Respect' and 'Dignity' which seems doesn't apply to women

I work in mental health in the NHS. I work in community services. Our toilets are unisex but theyre just a single cubicle with sink etc in the cubicle so its certainly not bothrred me, nor have i heard any complaints.

However our inpatient wards are single sex, and I strongly believe they need to stay that way. If someone has fully transitioned that's ok, though I know not a popular opinion on MN. However, i don't agree with self ID certainly not in this scenario. Female patients in mental health units are often very vulnerable.....many with a history of sexual abuse or exploitation and need to have safe spaces.

NHS successfully challenged on this. See thread below

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3784009-Are-you-in-Devon-Bristol-North-Somerset-or-South-Gloucestershire-Tell-NHS-your-view-on-trans-guidelines-NOW

@Spidey66

I work in mental health in the NHS. I work in community services. Our toilets are unisex but theyre just a single cubicle with sink etc in the cubicle so its certainly not bothrred me, nor have i heard any complaints.

However our inpatient wards are single sex, and I strongly believe they need to stay that way. If someone has fully transitioned that's ok, though I know not a popular opinion on MN. However, i don't agree with self ID certainly not in this scenario. Female patients in mental health units are often very vulnerable.....many with a history of sexual abuse or exploitation and need to have safe spaces.

We don't have cubicles - I don't like mixed facilities but it doesn't overly upset me as we are all adults. However, I feel strongly that women need to be consulted before you make decisions for them - I know- radical! I also accept that there are women who hate the thought of it and their views/opinions should count too.

I also work in a mental health trust and I am horrified that they have made this decision. The women we have on wards are so utterly vulnerable and traumatised - that their safety wouldn't be a priority really makes you wonder who is in charge and what is going on (trying to keep my conspiracy theory mind from kicking in - maybe it's just pure incompetence and misogyny).

[quote Theeyeballsinthesky]NHS successfully challenged on this. See thread below

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3784009-Are-you-in-Devon-Bristol-North-Somerset-or-South-Gloucestershire-Tell-NHS-your-view-on-trans-guidelines-NOW[/quote]
That's interesting - thank you.

Please do this. I commented on this in our annual staff survey for my public sector employer - as apparently did a number of others.

Having a number of employees saying that they felt silenced has genuinely given management room for thought, and caused them to look further into the issue. Management have since started to revise some areas, and even acknowledged that many of the objections came from feminists lesbians, not the right.

MH wards are usually mixed tho right? I mean theoretically there's a sop to "single sex accommodation" in that the men's bedrooms/dorms/loos are in a different part of the ward to the women's bedrooms, but everything else is mixed (okay there might be a female day room but usually nobody goes in there).

In our trust they're single sex. The last trust I was in were all single sex...i thought they all were as female patients felt safer in that environment

Some MH wards are still mixed sex and some are single sex. We certainly have had a number of males try to identify their way into our female ward - we have been able to stop all so far as there have been very obvious risk factors (above that of just being male) or a lack of any prior history of identifying as a woman but it's so annoying that a justification has to be given and I suppose at some point we will be made to admit some.

In the last trust I worked in MH wards were all single sex. Unfortunately, we did have some very risky accommodation of trans women on the female ward, which was really not good.

New trust has some mixed sex forensic wards, which is boggling my brain a bit

Must have just been chance that I happen to have been in mixed areas. I did live somewhere with a women's ward but it was PD specific I believe.

Mixed MH wards are horrible — I mind it far more than on a physical ward, because in physical wards people generally spend their time in their own bed area and are physically unwell, whereas on a MH ward most people are fully physically capable, social mixing is supposedly part of the "treatment", and a lot of the time there are no staff in sight and plenty of places a male patient can get you on your own. And, of course, when you complain about a male patient's behaviour on a MH ward, you're told he's unwell so you shouldn't be such a bitch about, say, unwanted penis on show. Not in those specific words, but that's the gist.

Fortunately paediatrics is exempt from
The mixed sex thing. We try not to mix teenage boys with girls. But it can be very difficult if the rest of the patients are babies and toddlers. Fortunately it's never been an issue.

@ClumpingBambooIsALie

Must have just been chance that I happen to have been in mixed areas. I did live somewhere with a women's ward but it was PD specific I believe.

Mixed MH wards are horrible — I mind it far more than on a physical ward, because in physical wards people generally spend their time in their own bed area and are physically unwell, whereas on a MH ward most people are fully physically capable, social mixing is supposedly part of the "treatment", and a lot of the time there are no staff in sight and plenty of places a male patient can get you on your own. And, of course, when you complain about a male patient's behaviour on a MH ward, you're told he's unwell so you shouldn't be such a bitch about, say, unwanted penis on show. Not in those specific words, but that's the gist.

Yes this is why they should be single sex. When I trained 30 years ago mixed sex were the norm but as ti e went on (and the powers that be started listening to patients) they are started to go back to single sex which of course in Victorian times they were. It's much more safe imho. Females with an acute mental health difficulty are often easily exploited * and often have a history of sexual abuse making them vulnerable.

*Disclaimer: I am only talking of service users who are acutely unwell, and am mainly thinking of those who suffer from bipolar and are in a manic phase, for instance, and in the context they are likely to need an inpatient admission. I am not implying that all women with a mental illness are vulnerable....just some of them, some of the time.

Ps I was an inpatient on a surgical ward 6 years ago. I was only there 2 nights and only on discharge did I realise it was mixed as I was in a female bay. That set up is not possible in mental health wards, when they're encouraged to get up and participate in OT activities

I've never been on a single sex psych ward but I imagine the atmosphere is different. I'd be interested to know if they tend to have female staff, too — being restrained by men when you're unwell has an additional psychological impact over being restrained by women.