An autistic patient who had his penis removed is suing over NHS treatment given to young people with gender dysphoria

The report that severely criticised the Tavistock recommended that sensible, caring and very careful counselling and support services need to be set up to help young people and their families make good decisions through responsible Gender clinics..

It never happened.

Therefore is it surprising that people turn to the less regulated private sector?

But instead of demanding these, and the Mental Health Services so desperately needed and poignantly described by so many above, we are in the O/P criticising yet again whats gone wrong instead of shelling out to put it right.
Its cheaper that way.

MadeInYorkshire I am so sorry this happened. I don’t know what the answer is, it seems to be a worldwide issue and it certainly is similar here. Words, words ,words but nothing ever gets done and the systems deteriorate weekly.

Thank you *Maddyone and *Rosie51 x

I think that we will be hearing a lot more unhappy young people.

This is copied from the Times article re Herron:

He also started therapy with an NHS psychosexual counsellor, which lasted for 100 sessions over five years, after which he was told he would be discharged and that the only other treatment open to him was surgery.

He did seem to have plenty of counselling before his surgery to try and decide what he wanted to do.

MadeInYorkshire I’m so sorry, I haven’t any other words to say to you

Totally second that sodapop no beds to send anyone to, no time to write notes which have to be done same day so memory is sharp so end up being done in home time (adding hours and hours of unpaid work to a day)
Staff going off with stress adding to those that continue working Far more patients per nurses ( therapists )list
Little help from other agencies as they are working on overstretched lines too
No input from the government I could go on and on they don’t call it the Cinderella section for nothing
Add to that covid Brexit and economic poverty and the need for mental health help is way out of control

Mental health services are overwhelmed in UK. My daughter a mental health community nurse is stressed beyond belief trying to help her patients. No lessons have been learned, there is no joined up thinking between agencies and certainly very little support for staff at the sharp end trying to deal with crisis after crisis.

I'm so sorry to read this MadeInYorkshire I hope you get help soon. Maybe time to start phone calls asking if you've been 'mislaid' in the system. This is exactly why it needs an overhaul and far more investment, although I fear mental health has always been the Cinderella of health care.

Hasn't the call for more counselling before even social transition been deemed transphobic? Labelled conversion therapy by those for whom positive affirmation is the only way.
From the different stories detransitioners tell one common factor seems to be that as soon as they mentioned any body dysphoria that became the prime focus with little interest in any other areas.
Child, adolescent and adult mental health care requires a huge overhaul and far more investment. It must be prepared to take far more effort with getting to the bottom of an individual's problems and not just seize on one area.

Mental Health Services are run into the ground, and Covid made it far worse as people suffered with lockdowns.

This Govt has deliberately defunded the NHS in the hope that the 'great unwashed' would accept anything to get the help they needed (ie sell it off to themselves and their mates) I don't think that we would be shocked to find most MP's will have their grubby little fingers in the private healthcare/insurance pie.

I blame this defunding on the death of my daughter to suicide in November - she and we begged for proper help for YEARS, but didn't get it. She even tried to kill herself when she was in hospital after an overdose, which would have been fatal had she not been found - the MH lot just let her out from A&E in the evening to fend for herself with no way of getting home (Uni was in rural Gloucestershire) and she was confused, and actually thought that she was here where I lived. She was diagnosed in 2019, but no help then, got upgraded finally after being with services since the age of 9, 6 weeks before she died and that help hadn't yet kicked in. I was referred to the MH Services as my surgery were very concerned about my MH, as I have been suicidal - they called 6 months to the day after she died, but have heard nothing since ....

I blame them, and this will hopefully be recorded at her Inquest.

What a sad story. At the risk of starting a controversial discussion, I understand that many people wishing to transition are on the autistic spectrum. Did anyone ever tell Herron that if surgery was undertaken, they would be infertile and would never have an orgasm? I suspect not. Many of us keep our opinions to ourselves on this subject for fear of being accused of transphobia, or worse.

Glorianny

Here's an idea. Suppose all those who feel for this young man write to their MP and ask for more and better counselling services and mental health services for children. I seem to remember a promise from this government that every school would have someone responsible for the mental health of the pupils. I seem to remember a huge publicity event where members of the Royal family promised more help for people suffering. What has happened? Services have been cut in all areas. This isn't just a gender problem. Although the results in that area are headline grabbing. This is a problem with services for children and young people.
And children who do not get proper counselling will do as nanna8 has suggested and go abroad, if all that is done is restricting their access to surgery here.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I agree, there’s less help out there than there used to be in fact, not more!

Heart breaking. But what Nanna8 says about parent support and going abroad is not an isolated case. I’ve watched it happen and I’ve seen the fall out later.
It needs parent support for children not earning to go abroad. The trip and the surgery is not cheap. The mother in the case I’m familiar with talked about her child’s right to have surgery.
Now she talks about the lack of advice they were given about potential after effects, and how her son’s life has been ruined.

MerylStreep

Glorianny
From my own personal experience schools do have people in place to help/educate. But is only a tick box exercise by the government/ school.
Me and my daughter had to educate one such person what sensory processing disorder is.
My granddaughters teacher was in on this meeting and I actually saw her roll her eyes a couple of times 😡

I'm so sorry MerylStreep seeing your child or grandchild subjected to such treatment is awful. I suspected that what we would get would not be exactly what it sounded like. And education is not the positive experience for some children it should be. I hoped teachers at least had progressed, but there are always some who do not.
It seems so wrong that we cannot provide the care and support all children need.

Glorianny
From my own personal experience schools do have people in place to help/educate. But is only a tick box exercise by the government/ school.
Me and my daughter had to educate one such person what sensory processing disorder is.
My granddaughters teacher was in on this meeting and I actually saw her roll her eyes a couple of times 😡

Here's an idea. Suppose all those who feel for this young man write to their MP and ask for more and better counselling services and mental health services for children. I seem to remember a promise from this government that every school would have someone responsible for the mental health of the pupils. I seem to remember a huge publicity event where members of the Royal family promised more help for people suffering. What has happened? Services have been cut in all areas. This isn't just a gender problem. Although the results in that area are headline grabbing. This is a problem with services for children and young people.
And children who do not get proper counselling will do as nanna8 has suggested and go abroad, if all that is done is restricting their access to surgery here.

This sort of thing needs to be given greater priority in the media. There is an obsession with gender at the moment and too many people in the medical profession are ill-informed and think all problems are caused by identity confusion.

By the way, I'm not sure about the definition of autism but that post written by the 'victim' seems to suggest a perfectly rational person who has trusted those in the medical profession and been badly let down.

That is very sad and worrying,too. I know of a young male in a friend’s family who wants to have an operation at the young age of 15 and his mother seems to be supporting him. I find that very frightening because there are places overseas ( he has researched this )where he could certainly get the op, no questions asked and no form of counselling given whatsoever.

This is so sad, and sadly, not an isolated case.

Utterly heartbreaking

There are now many people who have detransitioned and who have realised that they needed help other than the gender-related medication or/and surgery which they got.

There is a view that adults can do what they like with their bodies.
Ritchie Herron was a young adult at the time of his treatment and his point is that medics took insufficient interest in possible causes of his distress, simply pursuing the gender transition path with him.

More help is needed before such drastic, irreversible action is taken absolutely.

I agree wholeheartedly with your post Callistemon21

Oh, this is heartbreaking.

Poor young man, I could cry for him.

I think many teens go through phases of hating how they look; it was not called gender dysphoria years ago even if they disliked the changes in their bodies for some reason even if they were loved.

More help is needed before such drastic, irreversible action is taken.