Recent recommendations prompted the National Health Service (NHS) of the United Kingdom’s decision to open six new gender identity clinics that aim to provide tailored gender services.
This comes after the NHS published a detailed review in April from Dr. Hilary Cass, which it had asked an independent reviewer to conduct services for children with gender identity disorders.
This was followed by the approval of plans to overhaul gender healthcare services for children and young people shortly after publication of the Cass Review. The new clinics will be “holistic” in helping kids with mental health disorders.
More than half of medical professionals surveyed said they were “frightened” to talk about gender disorders — a concern raised by the review alongside major gaps in training and guidance for dealing with the issue, known as The Cass Review.
It warned that the medical pathway for children was “built on very shaky foundations,” and raised concerns over what it described as a lack of good quality evidence behind transgender interventions being promoted by doctors.
The report was also critical of the use of puberty blockers, saying they had not “improved body image” in young trans people with gender dysphoria.
Among other things, the authors also concluded that there was not enough evidence on which to draw conclusions about mental effects related to these treatments—a determination decried by some activists and politicians who believed it minimized important research.
Dr. Cass was quoted in the NHS announcement as saying: “I am pleased that NHS England is planning to fully implement the recommendations of my Review and the next important step will be the most challenging – turning it into a reality,” Dr. Cass said in the NHS announcement. “The vision of the Review – reflected in the implementation plan – is to increase available services for gender-questioning young people which take a holistic approach to care addressing the needs of each individual, and which put in place a full package of care which can be delivered as close to home as possible.”
As well as growing services the NHS intends to tighten referral standards for specialized clinics. In future, all new referrals to gender services will need to go through mental health or pediatric services so that every child and young person is comprehensively assessed before treatment starts as laid out in the announcement.
The NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “These plans set out in detail how we will establish a fundamentally different and safer model of care for children and young people,” Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said. “The work Dr. Cass has undertaken has been invaluable in helping us shape the new service offer, and we have already begun our transformation of these services by opening two new regional centers this year.”
In July 2022, the NHS ordered the Tavistock and Portman Trust’s gender identity clinic in London to shut down after safety concerns were raised by many over children being pushed through transgender procedures as identified in detail within a report published on Cass. The NHS then banned the use of puberty blockers on children with gender dysphoria for new patients, saying it was insufficient research.
Health and Social Care Secretary Mr Wes Streeting said: “As well as rolling out new services, NHS England is setting up a clinical trial to establish the evidence on puberty blockers, because children’s healthcare should always be led by evidence. I want trans people in our country to feel safe, accepted, and able to live with freedom and dignity.”
