Head of Tavistock cuts ties with Bayswater - Telegraph

[Melroses]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/30/head-tavistock-clinic-cuts-ties-parents-trans-children-transphobic/

" A spokesperson for Bayswater Support Group added: “We are surprised that an NHS clinic refuses to engage with parents on ideological grounds, especially when our concerns are evidence-based and reflect many of the issues raised in the recent Cass Review interim statement."

That's going to look good when all of the court cases start...

Members of the public don’t have to be neutral about treatments offered to their children. This is what Javid meant by ideological.

Wow

"A spokesperson for Bayswater Support Group added: “We are surprised that an NHS clinic refuses to engage with parents on ideological grounds, especially when our concerns are evidence-based and reflect many of the issues raised in the recent Cass Review interim statement.

“Why are the views of groups such as Mermaids and Stonewall taken into account, but not ours?”

A spokesperson for the Trust said: “The Gender Identity Development Service works with every young person on a case-by-case basis, supporting them as they explore their gender identity development, with no expectation about what might be the outcome for any given individual.

“The Trust opposes conversion therapy for gay and trans people, and cannot work with groups affiliated with those who seek particular outcomes for these vulnerable young people.”"

I see "case-by-case" reappears here. Perhaps it's a new line as per the Equality Act interpretations by some groups.

This is short-sighted. Cut ties with one, cut ties with all. That should be the approach.

Whilst conversion therapy to change a person's sexuality is clearly wrong I don't understand why trans should be included. Surely a conversion doesn't come much more Damascene than changing a whole person's body to fit their idea of who they are?

("We)..cannot work with groups affiliated with those who seek particular outcomes for these vulnerable young people".

It seems that they are still wedded to puberty blocker Mermaidian ideology and are unable to change track. It is like turning a tanker around to get these people to stop handing out these medications to children, it seems like nothing has changed there at all post Kiara Bell.

And when they say particular outcomes they mean they refuse to work with groups who worry about medically sterilising children and would prefer to work with those who insist on it. FFS 🤦‍♀️

Here is the article.
archive.ph/krDZk

They really are captured by the trans extremist groups aren't they? They're meant to be delivering evidenced, researched, safe health care to exceptionally vulnerable children, most who have a range of other competing mental health challenges. Yet they are so in thrall to activist groups that they take an ideological stance, alienating the very parents they should be working in partnership with. Unbelievable.

‘("We)..cannot work with groups affiliated with those who seek particular outcomes for these vulnerable young people.’

This is the motte in the motte and bailey defence. Despite never having not decided a child who presents with gender dysphoria is ‘trans’, they are now going to pretend they are invested, not in treatment for ideological reasons, but in the best ‘outcomes’, plural. They are going to pretend they always championed exploratory approaches.

I literally don't understand what that means.

The original correspondence between Bayswater and the Tavi is here:

twitter.com/bayswatersg/status/1435203195270320130?s=21

(We)..cannot work with groups affiliated with those who seek particular outcomes for these vulnerable young people.’

As a parent I do seek a particular outcome; the relief of distress in my child in a way which does not ignore sexuality, autism as well as gender dysphoria, but does not involve long term medicalisation / infertility / irreversible harm.

Bayswater SG is an oasis of sanity in a world of affirmation - they recognise parents’ misgivings about the Stonewall and Mermaids approach and help us look for evidence and question those people in authority (schools, healthcare professionals etc.) . These hundreds of parents could be a valuable source of information on the gender phenomenon as they are unwillingly, with no agenda other than seeking the best for their children, navigating a difficult situation as it takes over every aspect of their lives.

It is outrageous that they are being sidelined in favour of groups with a political, ideological agenda.

Hear hear @Squareteabags

I feel like I'm missing something. Isn't Javid challenging the affirmation approach? Which is what mermaids is all about?

How can you call your patients' parents transphobic? That's a value judgement which has absolutely no place whatsoever in an NHS clinic.

They sound so captured. Worse than ever.

Surely you can't refuse to work with patients because you disagree with their belief system.

I hope this makes everything come to a head.

"The Trust [...] cannot work with groups affiliated with those who seek particular outcomes for these vulnerable young people.” - Unless those groups are advocating unquestioning affirmation and all of the consequences that follow from that approach, apparently!

The Trans Train documentary (about the Swedish gender services) talks about ethical stress. Clinicians experience this when pressured to prescribe treatments they are not 100% convinced about. Such as clinicians at the Tavistock who may disagree with the affirmation protocol for example. We know from the Sonia Appleby case that clinicians in that position were blocked from raising safeguarding concerns. Any compassionate clinician who finds themselves worried they are not serving their young patients well and lacking management support is likely to leave the service. How could they continue in this environment? And we know that lots did leave. This leaves only those who champion the affirmation approach remaining in the service. The ideas get more entrenched and harder to question and you get to this type of situation where the service actively distances itself from parents of patients because the clinic staff have created an echo chamber for themselves. God I hope we see this all come out in the wash with Cass's report.

I’m absolutely agog at the sheer arrogance of this stance. You’re the head of a service which is currently being heavily scrutinised and there is absolutely no way you can be unaware that the “treatment” your service provides is controversial. Instead of engaging with concerned parents and working with them to alleviate concerns (which I’m sure you would be able to do with your well-researched, evidence-based practice), you basically tell the concerned parents to fuck off, bigots. It’s astonishing.

Genuinely shocked by this digging-in of heels and insulting of patients and patients' families.

This is a real pity. I know a consultant paediatrician who works in the hospital in a market town. Someone else had mentioned gender (actually a man working in IT who had a colleague who had decided to transition, with a reassuring focus on sympathy for the wife and children.)

Anyway she mentioned seeing a few patients with genders dysphoria whose families were very confused/distressed etc. They wanted to do the right thing but needed support and advice. I got the feeling there was a particular family she had in mind, who wanted an alternative to Mermaids, but that was all that was on the guidance. Were there any alternatives. I mentioned the Bayswater Group, as well as Transgender Trend and the Safe Schools Alliance, as well as the Cass report and Boris’ recent statement. . She liked the idea of watchful waiting. She was aware of possible side effects from Lupron.

I saw her last weekend and warned her of the controversy around the Tavi and Bayswater. My friend is sensible and unpolitical and will want to do the best for children in her care guided by NHS policy. She was relieved to read Cass. It’s a minefield. The NHS needs to step up and give ordinary hospital doctors the tools they need to do their jobs including an alternative to a controversial lobby group like Mermaids.