Tavistock clinic to close as not safe for children

[GettingMarriedAgain]

Breaking news in the Times and Telegraph:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e1ed2bea-0e63-11ed-93cf-b011fa7fe86b?shareToken=4fa557c3083dee141defde72e0e53d54

Has this been posted yet? Stephanie Davis Arai and India Willoughby on Talk TV.

(The title is wrong, it should of course say 2022, not 2020.)

Hannah Barnes has posted up a useful and detailed timeline, with references to key articles and videos, on Twitter.

twitter.com/hannahsbee/status/1552979640062558208

Not sure that's accurate - experiments usually involve collecting data to advance knowledge. Is there a word for the kind of "experiments" children do where they're essentially just playing around to see what happens but disappear when it's time to clean up the mess?

Damming words from David bell.

criminal charges should happen

children damaged permanently

And I know which one of these two speakers I trust to have a rational basis for their views, and a focus on good clinical standards.

I'm becoming very weary of the whole single qualification of a speaker to comment on medical ethics, policy, practice and treatment of kids, education, equality affecting nine separate categories of people, is simply that they identify as transgender.

This has been the problem that created this absolute mess in the first place. It's been tried. It's been an absolute mares nest of a disaster. These services must be run solely by people properly qualified to do so, regardless of their sex or gender identity or any other characteristic.

Stephanie & Eleanor Hayward were very good & informative in that piece. Willoughby sneered a bit and picked irrelevant stats out of the air (which of course were about middle aged men transitioners not the focus of the discussion - children).
Finally there's some decent coverage of this issue. I enjoyed James Kirkup's piece in the Spectator:
www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-the-tavistock-clinic-had-to-be-shut-down

It's good to see the MSM finally reporting Cass's damning findings that
brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences.

Me too Artichoke. I've been pointing out to educators that giving trans groups / individuals the power to overturn pastoral care policy, undermine safeguarding, weigh in on issues like toilets, showering and changing rooms with no qualifications of any sort (other than being trans) is dangerous to children.
Way back GIRES self identified as suitable to train educators with some shameful safeguarding breaching training. After several years of complaints they finally amended it, introducing some levels of safeguarding but continuing to display dangerous ignorance with wrong advice.

If I was a trans person, I wouldn't want India speaking for me. Their plaintive 'everyone's got it in for transpeople' doesn't really sit well alongside

"brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences."

Susie Green on Radio 4 PM programme right now

spinning this as more resources for 'trans children'

SG says "you never can have too much evidence"

carefully stepping around the change in policy away from defaulting to PBs

apparently it's complicated and everything should be considered.......well yes

refusing to talk about Tavi not collecting evidence

I had to switch her off, can’t listen to her smug, reverse ferrets, how many damaged children is she responsible.

I had missed that part of the Cass report that referred to potential neurological damage from puberty blockers. That is very worrying indeed.

GIDS didn't keep any records, did they?

I work in research. Pharma companies are usually v reluctant to put cancer drugs into children because they dont want to assume the risk, because the market is too small to make the risk worthwhile. Even getting them to include children in clinical trials is a struggle.

But lo and behold, in the lucrative growth trans market, pharma companies are only too happy to make their drugs available for off label usage in children. Because the risks are low (huge lobbying behind it) and there are profits to be made.

It is entirely out of step with the rest of healthcare. The new approach proposed by Hilary Cass is not new, it is just how things are done in the rest of medicine.

Challenging case? Discuss in a multi disciplinary team meeting.
Shaky evidence base? Proceed with caution. Gather long term follow up. Bring in clinical trials.
Political pressure involved? Be very wary of 'patient advocate groups' check motivation and funding. Keep appropriate distance.
Children involved? Work on the basis of minimal effective intervention. Be vv wary of long term effects.

GIDS is a total anachronism. And it is fucking dangerous. I have had this conversation with friends who are health care professionals, and some are so captured they will not concede this, despite it being glaringly obvious.

Honestly that woman is such a monumental hypocrite. She knows damn well that anyone calling for evidence would have been written off as a transphobe.

She is, successfully, relying on the fact that the MSM has been so woeful in covering the issue that the average listener who knows nothing about this would find her convincing—especially because of her status in a popular charity that they have heard about and know is sponsored by BBC's CIN, Starbucks etc.

Because the risks are low (huge lobbying behind it)

Can you expand on that? How do the lobbyists lower the risks for the pharma companies?

Susie Green, Owen Jones, Adrian Harrop… all these people are riding the tiger. Which is fine but it means you can’t get off. And this particular tiger is heading towards a watershed moment of litigation and public outrage that something so mad was ever allowed to happen in the first place.

New story about this:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/29/children-referred-puberty-blockers-just-one-consultation-tavistock/

"Children were referred for puberty blockers after just one consultation at the Tavistock clinic, it has emerged, amid calls for use of the drugs to be stopped immediately.
After the NHS announced that it was closing down the clinicc_ amid safety fears, whistleblowers revealed the speed with which young people were placed on a medical pathway.
Dr Hilary Cass, who is leading a major review of the service, has warned that the drugs could prompt the “rewiring of neural circuits” and affect parts of the brain responsible for decision-making and judgment.
The NHS has committed to urgent research on the impact and both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have pledged to consider restricting the use of puberty blockerss_ if they win the Tory leadership election.
But parent groups on Friday called for ministers to go further and immediately ban the drugs for use in treating gender dysphoria over concerns about the life-long damage that they are causing.
There were also calls for a public inquiry into the way that the Tavistock, the only clinic for treating transgender children, was operated and why repeated concerns stretching back almost two decades were ignoredd_...."

Omg SG stealing the word "holistically" on Pm.

FO.

@ResisterRex but... but but this never happpaaaans etc etc.