BBC Radio 4 WATO Tragic death of young person (trigger warning)

[SorryAuntLydia]

Today’s World At One featured an interview with the sister of a young person who took their own life. The young person (aged 20) identified as female and had been on the waiting list for the Tavistock for ‘gender affirming treatment’ for around 3 years, after being discharged at 18 from CAMHS. The coroner has yet to provide a final report.

The story was so tragic. The sister’s sibling lost all psychological and psychiatric care abruptly at 18, and felt unsupported, eventually losing hope. I have nothing but respect for the sister and her obvious grief which has been compounded by nasty trolling on SM.

Nonetheless, the framing of this story on a news programme was imho dangerous and ignorant. There was no exploration of the alternative narrative - that this tragic action was a symptom of an untreated MH issue rather than that of a lack of ‘gender treatment’. There was no explanation of ‘gender affirming treatment’, the lack of scientific consensus on the use of these, and the dangerous and painful potential outcomes. There was no mention of any of the medical controversies at all.

Whilst it would have been inappropriate to include these in the interview with a grieving sister, the BBC failed to provide balance in the wraparound narrative of the news article. Simply this ‘news’ story was an uncritical claim that waiting lists for affirmation cause ‘transgender’ people to commit suicide.

I’m so disappointed in the BBC… again.

Is this thread about the same case?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4899525-tragic-suicide

I felt much the same on hearing the report OP. We also got instruction from the sister about what we are to say and what we are to believe.

This will sound harsh, but just because someone is grieving, that doesn't mean I must accept being ideologically indoctrinated by them.

Yes @Mochudubh, both threads are about the same person.

This is such awful reporting. Suicude is a tragedy and it's absolutely appalling that the BBC is using it to push a narrative that "gender affirming care" saves lives i.e. could have saved Alice.
It's utterly shameful and could lead others who are caught up in gender identity confusion (as lots of young people are ATM, particularly autistic adolescent girls) to ideate suicide. There are guidelines about reporting suicide for exactly this reason.. and the BBC has completely ignored them.

If you're on Twitter, please consider giving this a nudge:
https://twitter.com/BonfireLady/status/1704887123088732411?t=QsEkfUcxbaR7L_Vqcpnuzg&s=19

@Mochudubh sorry I missed that thread. Yes it is the same.

Yes the BBC is going to disingenuously push the angle that if only they had had gender affirming care this wouldn't have happened. They 'journalism' isn't worthy of the 5th form.

Was this the patient of that awful woman gp and whose mum is a clinical psychologist?