Review of suicides and gender dysphoria at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust

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Some very good news. Transpires that Jolyon's claim of increased suicides since puberty blockers were banned is incorrect.

Review of Suicides and Gender Dysphoria at the Tavi and Portman NHS Trust: Independent Report.

By Professor Louis Appleby, University of Manchester
Department of Health and Social Care adviser on suicide prevention

Aim of this review
I have reviewed data provided by NHS England (NHSE) on suicides by young patients of the gender services at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, based on an audit at the trust. The specific aim is to examine evidence for a large rise in suicides claimed by campaigners.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-suicides-and-gender-dysphoria-at-the-tavistock-and-portman-nhs-foundation-trust/review-of-suicides-and-gender-dysphoria-at-the-tavistock-and-portman-nhs-foundation-trust-independent-report

Responsible reporting of suicide in the media is an important strand of suicide prevention, and a central feature of the national suicide prevention strategy in England. Guidance has been developed by Samaritans, originally for the news media but with wider applicability to any public discussion of suicide, and increasingly relevant to social media.
The risks include:

• alarming stories about suicide causing distress to people who are themselves at risk
• identification - when someone sees in themselves a connection with a person who has died by suicide; leading to:
• imitation and suicide clusters in people with similar characteristics

As a result, the media - and users of social media - are asked to:

• ensure that any claims about suicide are evidence-based and from a reliable source
• avoid alarming and dramatic language
• avoid the impression that suicide is the expected or likely outcome in certain situations
• avoid oversimplifying suicide by attributing it to a single cause which could be the basis of identification

Claims
The claims have been led by the legal campaign group the Good Law Project, who are challenging the decision by the previous Health Secretary to end the prescription of puberty-blocking drugs by private clinics to children and young people with gender dysphoria.
The central claim, made on X (formerly known as Twitter), is that there has been a large rise in suicide by current and recent patients of the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) service at the Tavistock since an earlier restriction of puberty-blocking drugs that followed a High Court decision in a case (Bell v Tavistock) in December 2020. The rise is described as a “surge” in suicides and “an explosion”, indicating a substantial and, by implication, unequivocal increase. There are multiple references to children dying in future because they are unable to access puberty-blocking drugs.
This claim is said to be based on unpublished data provided by 2 members of staff at the Tavistock, described as whistleblowers. On Twitter/X the evidence is presented in screenshots of extracts from the records of Tavistock Board meetings and other documents. These variously refer to suicides, deaths from unspecified causes and “safety incidents”. A specific claim is that there was one suicide by a patient on the GIDS waiting list in the 3 years before the High Court judgment, and 16 deaths (rather than suicides) in the 3 years after the judgment. The whistleblowers are said to have alleged a cover-up by NHSE.
These claims have been retweeted thousands of times by other campaigners and members of the public. They have been repeated by some leading journalists, though there is nothing to suggest that they have examined the evidence for themselves. They too have adopted the language of “dying children”.

Thank you for sharing this

1. The way that this issue has been discussed on social media has been insensitive, distressing and dangerous, and goes against guidance on safe reporting of suicide. One risk is that young people and their families will be terrified by predictions of suicide as inevitable without puberty blockers - some of the responses on social media show this.

Another is identification, already-distressed adolescents hearing the message that “people like you, facing similar problems, are killing themselves”, leading to imitative suicide or self-harm, to which young people are particularly susceptible. Then there is the insensitivity of the “dead child” rhetoric. Suicide should not be a slogan or a means to winning an argument. To the families of 200 teenagers a year in England, it is devastating and all too real.

Jolyon should hang his head in shame. It's about time there was a robust push-back on his behaviour.

The incalculable harm that JM has done and continues to do over this issue is off the scale

he’s gone full David icke

They've got that rebuttal out pretty quick. Good.

Very welcome.

I'm very pleased that they've responded so robustly to his batshit claims. His rhetoric is danger to vulnerable children. It also provides vile fodder for TRAs to use against the Cass report.

I hope he summons up enough humility to shut his mouth now.

I hope he summons up enough humility

This is Jolyon Maugham we're talking about!

There's a thread on Twitter by trans activist group TransLucent that claims parents are buying blockers online.

''Some parents are using the black market, accessing (GnRH) analogues online from Asia. The quality of the medication can not be assured. Others are using alternative meds available over the counter in the UK, which are unsafe.''

https://x.com/TransLucent_Org/status/1814197250127544345

Also Susie Green is setting up her own clinic using a "loophole"

Susie Green (former Mermaids CEO) sets up clinic to bypass ban on puberty blockers for children www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/5123055-susie-green-former-mermaids-ceo-sets-up-clinic-to-bypass-ban-on-puberty-blockers-for-children

These people are more likely to cause suicides with their dramatic tweeting!

Don't suppose there is any chance he'll shut up now?

Bloody hell. Part of me really wants to ask what OTC medicine people use or think they can use to block puberty in their children, and a more sensible part of me knows that even if someone here has that information it’s best not to post it in case it encourages any idiot to give it a go.

All of me has my jaw on the floor at the claim on that tweet that “parents will do what is best for their children” in the context of describing parents who are stuffing their kids full of untested drugs with known serious dangers. I can only say that I hope that anyone who knows of any parent doing this reports them to social services urgently.

Isn't that a criminal offense

Let's hope so.

Is it possible you could get MNHQ to change the title of this thread so it is clear it is a report on both Tavistock and Portman.

I started a thread saying it was about Tavistock and Portman because it didn't occur to me that this thread was related. But MNHQ deleted it, and said this was THE thread, which is weird because on many occassion there have been parallel threads about reports news or whatever. Since when had MNHQ had the right to do that.

Suicde Report could be about anything.

Not forgetting that search engines pick up MN thread titles so it is a good way to get the info into the public domain.

ie could you ask them to add for instance re: Tavistock and Portman.

Good News! Thanks signal.

Yes sorry for the lousy title I’ve reported the OP and asked for it to be changed.

I'm glad they explicitly referenced him in the report. The way he behaves on Twitter and stirs up the stupids is revolting

That is a gloriously public slapdown of Jolyon's irresponsible nonsense. Given the incredibly poor track record of the 'Good' Law project, I'm always amazed he thinks anyone views his ramblings with anything but incredulity.

Thank you, OP. Maugham's reckless, extreme statements seem like they should be prosecutable, somehow. He's endangering lives, based on made up bullshit.

' Suicide should not be a slogan or a means to winning an argument. '

Hear fuckin hear.

Professor Louis Appleby is a leading expert in the field of suicide prevention and has been for decades. I am so pleased he's been leading this review. He has absolutely nailed it.