Telegraph/Mermaids and Tavi

[SigourneyHoward]

I can't link the story as I don't have an account but the Telegraph have published this

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1662545555015213058?s=20

So, you are Polly Carmichael and you take referrals from anyone.

And all your medical professionals only affirm and dish out the drugs the patients want.

And you keep no records and don't follow up on anyone.

And the numbers are skyrocketing.

And you know you are dealing with vulnerable kids, gay kids and autistic kids. And sexually abused kids, with 10 times as many with sex offenders as parents than usual.

You have almost as many whistleblowers as staff who you have ignored for years.

You know it is all going to tumble out at some point. Likely to be the biggest medical scandal ever.

Where are you?

Sorry i missed the rest of article

digitaleditions.telegraph.co.uk/data/1324/reader/reader.html?social#!preferred/0/package/1324/pub/1324/page/41/article/NaN

Is Polly Carmichael still working in the NHS / at the Tavistock? I remember her in the I am Leo BBC documentary, she didn't seem professional at all!

And has she been given a role in the 'new' Tavistock? I've a feeling I've read that she has but I'm not sure.

christ. It's horrifying.

Can I add that it had been both reported by staff and found on social media that Mermaids, who is referring children, is also coaching them what to say and how to influence diagnosis.

Let’s not forget this. It needs to be repeated loudly and often!

Oh…. And that senior staff of Mermaids acknowledge they have no medical training, yet, have denied in court they ‘do’ medical stuff. Yet, they refer children and influence treatment standards.

It's such a fucking racket.

Teach children they have a gender identity, earn money on the back of it and forge a career. Then tell them this is why they are playing with the wrong toys, which means they need to be referred to a clinic. Then tell them what to say at the clinic in order to get medication. Then fucking go and work for the suspended and struck off doctors who prescribe it.

The papers really need to make a massive connection between children being taught this in schools, and being referred for medication over and above the advice of doctors, by the IT consultant who teaches it.

Australia seems to be beginning to discuss how harmful this all is. (The articles are up on archive sites for access).

Accounts are coming through about just how these treatments are not improving lives. And mainly the accounts are from female transitioners and their parents.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4814889-the-weekend-australian-again

I’ve just skimmed the documents and emails. One thing that jumped out at me was S Green’s use of two different email addresses, a Mermaids one and a personal one.

Rule one in the how to be a Professional handbook is always use your professional email on professional business.

S Green looks to be sending referrals for children of parents who contacted Mermaids from her personal email address. So are the referrals from S Green in a ‘professional’ capacity or a personal one?

S Green’s only professional clout is being the CEO of Mermaids - a position she helped create, a position she got because of her own unique experience and views. She’s shown over and over again her lack of basic safeguarding knowledge. Referring someone who’s own GP has refused just reiterates this.

There's so much detail to get on top of here. Those of us who have been following this stuff for a long time know things that the general public won't even imagine possible, I suspect.

Take one small detail: Belinda Bell says Mermaids don't do medical stuff. Did she not know that through their forums Mermaids made it possible for their young female clients to get hold of binders, whether or not their parents agreed? (See Bayswater Support Group below, which says towards the end that this was very widely covered in the media last autumn before the LGBA court case.)

Binders are not just sports bras to make your chest look a bit flatter. Wearing a binder for prolonged periods is very bad for general health as it affects breathing amd the development of muscles and bones. It's also commonly painful and causes problems with posture. Nobody has researched how wearing one may affect the body longer term, given that the child is still going through puberty, growing in height, changing shape, and may still be at quite an early stage in this. PE teachers have been advised to let female pupils known to be wearing a binder sit out of some PE lessons because they might not be able to cope with the physical demands. There's a health problem building up right there. Long-term use of a binder causes permanent changes in breast tissue and can affect the ribs. Wearing a binder for a long continuous period can cause bruises and sores on the skin, even skin tears, which is an infection risk, and is likely to exacerbate skin conditions like eczema.

Susie Green wanted GIDS to link to Mermaids so children and their parents would be able to find out where to buy a binder, amongst other things. https://twitter.com/KevsTribulation/status/1662742400681254912?s=20

https://www.bayswatersupport.org.uk/breast-binding-self-harm-or-gender-care/

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

SG sought to alleviate all doubt that what she did to her son was child abuse by institutionalising child abuse. She and the fools who allowed her to steam roll them and child safe guarding on that quest deserve naming, shaming and possibly jail time.

This is not SG's fault. I'm not saying that to defend her - I'm completely opposed to everything she stands for. My point is that this is all on the Tavi.

It's actually not that unusual for NHS services to accept referrals from non-medical sources. Generally that's a good thing - if, for example, a school has concerns about a child's mental health, it makes sense for them to be able to refer for support without involving the GP, if the GP does not know the child well. Likewise with expert charities.

But, for all referrals, whether from an HCP or not, the clinician who receives the referral is responsible for managing it appropriately. Even a GP will often refer to the wrong service, because services are constantly being reconfigured (if you read Hannah Barnes' book, you will see how much confusion there was between the Tavi and the gender endocrinology service, even amongst expert professionals). So every referral needs to be sifted, to check that it has reached the appropriate service, and that the request in the referral is appropriate.

This is what went wrong here: not accepting referrals from non-HCPs, but failing to manage them appropriately, and GIDS allowing themselves to be pushed around by Mermaids.

Yep.

Sunday Telegraph interview: great feature on Kathleen Stock

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/28/kathleen-stock-interview-oxford-university-gender-debate/

Yesterday Saturday Telegraph interview was Miriam Cates
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/27/miriam-cates-interview/

Sorry - the paywall bypass wouldn't work for me.

Yes, I agree with that, too.

They should've been able to stand up to Susie Green. But Susie Green was using all the children she has seen thru mermaids, as her leverage.

I can easily see her claiming a higher authority, as she did when she tried to refute the Telegraph questions.

she's the expert. She's the one who is the most knowledgeable about this esoteric condition.

And yes, gender dysphoria exists. But she has made it the go to explanation for gender nonconforming children, children with autism, children who want to escape being objectified, all of it.

But it's the made up bloody gender identity that gets me. There is no such thing.

And yes, Polly Carmichael should have clamped down on that aspect of it immediately.

Seeing all these cared for children, potentially gay children and the overwhelming presentation of autism should have lit a fire under her to find out why.

I agree with you to an extent @MissLucyEyelesbarrow. Anyone with safeguarding should be able to refer a child to a specialist medical agency and it's up to the professional clinicians to make professional and evidence based decisions on care.

The problem with GIDS is that there was a vacuum there and as we all know, nature abhors a vacuum. There wasn't any evidence. And SG was coaching GIDS on appropriate treatment and the families who came to Mermaids for help. She was creating the evidence. Whichever way anyone turned, Green was there.

Her Facebook post details everything. She was there at every turn, shaping the dialogue, pushing over and over again for medical transition to be the only treatment for children who express gender issues.

Her and her acolytes are happy for detransitioners to be collateral damage.

It's such a fucking racket.

Teach children they have a gender identity, earn money on the back of it and forge a career. Then tell them this is why they are playing with the wrong toys, which means they need to be referred to a clinic. Then tell them what to say at the clinic in order to get medication. Then fucking go and work for the suspended and struck off doctors who prescribe it.

This a million times.

Whistleblowers raised it again and again.

This NHS organisation is owned and controlled by an unqualified, self interested lobby group, pushing for unqualified, dodgy things on their own powerful personal agenda, and preventing any questioning. And getting rid of anyone who does not comply.

The systematic disposing of and shutting out of any non compliant voice is one of the repeating features of political capture. So is the cute marketing while telling highly emotive and partisan stories that make well intentioned people go ahhh and hand over money without asking difficult questions.

Absolutely. The entire service was flawed. Part of being a responsible doctor is saying no to patients. There is a saying in medicine, "Beware of the doctor whose patients all like him."

If I gave opiates/sleepers/antibiotics to everyone who asked for them, my life would be 100% easier, but I would be harming my patients. I'm not saying I always get it right - I'm sure I don't - but at least I'm not just signing a prescription for an easy life, or for the thrill of a patient telling me, "You're the only one who understands me, Doctor" (another red flag).

There is absolutely no excuse for the Tavi which, in the early days, was incredibly well resourced for the patient numbers, to have adopted the model that it did, of just giving in to Mermaids.

The refrain is a common one in multiple aspects isn't it? 'Yes no one else is allowed to do this because policy, reasons, ethics, safeguarding, need to balance other people's rights, but a special exception should be made because the word trans has become involved.'

So many have fallen for this, based on self appointed experts, those with high stakes in the game, those quite frankly after personal benefit, and it's been taken to the point where the argument is even pressed that if some people were badly damaged by all the safeguards and policies being waived, others were happy so it's all ok.

It's madness. LangClegg nailed it years ago when she described the dangers of any society creating a sacred caste. Adults have been permitted to use children for their own agenda and have been handed tax payer funding to do so.

Green has posted about this article on Facebook.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0E2Ekh1RdSCTguFsKvo8B3QXmSmkEcjJ9EWZNbQtck15f2Go39re32nrRHzE9DKzFl&id=1584620955

I can’t cut and paste the text so attach screenshots.

Last pages:

The Daily Telegraph commenters continue to be appalled at how all this has been allowed to happen for so long. My subscription has been well worth it, to see so many people being 'peaked'. They are running loads of articles and have done so for some time. Comments run to 1200+ on most of these articles and are fun to read as when someone condones the genderwoo, someone else posts to explain why they are wrong. It is also fairly all civilised with no name-calling.

Green also Tweeted calling GPS that would refer to the Tavi “transphobic”.