I don’t think it’s been mentioned yet that
the Tavistock Gender Identity Development service (GIDS) was rated inadequate overall (inadequate or in need of improvement on all but one criteria) at the last inspection, and in response the management team was disbanded. However, this restructuring of management does not address the ideological capture behind the rise of the affirmation-only approach and silencing of dissent.
"Many records provided insufficient evidence of staff considering the specific needs of young people, such as autistic spectrum disorders"
"Staff had only recently begun to record consent and capacity or competence clearly for young people who might have impaired mental capacity or competence."
"We reviewed 35 care records. We found these records to be unstructured. Records did not provide evidence to show what staff were assessing. There was no clear rationale for clinical decision making."
"Whilst the criteria for considering referring young people for administration of hormone blockers was set out in the service specification, we saw no reference to this on any patient records……… it would be very difficult for the service to assess whether clinicians had made the correct decision in making a referral"
"This audit found that assessments of capacity, competency and consent had not been recorded in accordance with the established procedures in eight of the 11 records reviewed. The absence of a structured assessment had not been recorded as an incident for any of these records, despite the absence of a formal record of assessment potentially leading to a risk of medicines being administered unlawfully"
One positive point is that the service recently advertised for a clinical psychologist able to assess a range of mental health problems in young people, suggesting there may be a move away from attributing everything to gender issues.
….
leaders of movements of a very powerful ideological commitment have managed to capture policy; both medically, professionally, in the media and in government, with no evidence base – it’s a purely highly politicised movement that has had these consequences.
- Dr David Bell, former Tavistock consultant psychiatrist.
