Therapist raised alert at troubling practices at Tavistock clinic

Sue Evans worked at the Tavistock clinic for years but grew so concerned that she became a whistleblower.

She was a mental health nurse and psychotherapist in the centre’s gender identity development service between 2003 and 2007 and found the pace at which children were assessed and referred for hormone blocking therapy was much faster than in other areas of children’s mental health.

Many children, mostly girls, would arrive at the clinic adamant that they wanted to change gender but when she allowed them more consulations to explore their reasoning, other factors would emerge. Some of her patients subsequently changed their minds.

Ms Evans, 62, reported her alarm at the speed of assessment and feared that treatment plans were being influenced by groups such as Mermaids, a transgender advocacy charity. She left her part-time job at the clinic and now works in private practice but remained troubled by what she saw, particularly as the number of children treated at the clinic increased from 468 in 2014 to 2,519 last year.

She added: “There is huge pressure on the service to address the waiting list, which then means the time allowed for consultation with the children and their families is reduced to maybe three to six sessions before referring for hormone treatment.”


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/therapist-raised-alert-at-troubling-practices-at-tavistock-clinic-nfhsbb76n?shareToken=8e6368c7fd4fc697ceae3fa4b468519a