London (Parliament News) – Dr Hilary Cass, leading a review of NHS gender identity services, faces safety concerns due to online abuse following her report’s release. Criticism arises, prompting fears for her well-being.
The doctor behind a landmark examination of the NHS’s gender identity services for children and young people has expressed fears about her safety amid online misuse after the report’s release.
Dr Hilary Cass told the Times she expected to address the “disinformation” circulating about the findings and suggestions handed down by the Cass review when it was published on 10 April.
She stated she had received online abuse in the wake of the information and had been advised to stop using public transport.
The report stated the evidence base for gender medicine in young individuals had been thin and children had been let down by a “toxic” public discourse around gender.
Is Dr. Cass’s Safety Threatened by Criticism?
Cass told the Times: “I have been frustrated by the criticisms because it is straight disinformation. It is completely inaccurate.
“It started the day before the report came out when an influencer posted a picture of a list of papers that were apparently rejected because they were not randomised control trials.
“That list has absolutely nothing to do with either our report or any of the papers.”
Should Healthcare Professionals Fear Online Abuse?
Referring to the online abuse she had received, she said: “There are some pretty vile emails coming in at the moment, most of which my team is protecting me from, so I’m not getting to see them.”
She added: “I’m not going on public transport at the moment, following security advice, which is inconvenient.”
The report stated the now-shuttered Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, the only NHS gender essence development service for children in England and Wales, employed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones despite “remarkably weak evidence” that they enhanced the wellbeing of young people and concern they may harm health.
The report urged that young people struggling with their gender identity should be filtered to detect neurodevelopmental requirements and there should be an assessment of their mental health, because some who desire help with their gender identity may also have anxiety or depression, for example.
When the report was unleashed, Cass stressed that her findings were not planned to undermine the validity of trans uniqueness or challenge people’s right to transition, but rather to enhance the care of the fast-growing number of children and young people with gender-related distress.
The report’s conclusions were not welcomed by all medical professionals.
Dr Aidan Kelly, a clinical psychologist specialising in gender who left Tavistock in 2021, expressed the NHS was struggling to recruit qualified and experienced people to run the scheduled eight clinics that will provide the new, broader model of care.
“Although Gids wasn’t perfect, we had a service with a history and expertise,” he informed the Guardian last week. “There were things that needed to change but at least holding on to the knowledge that was accrued over time would have made sense to me.”
NHS England has since reported a second Cass review-style appraisal of adult gender clinics. Cass verified to the Times that she would not take part in the adult information after the abuse she suffered in recent weeks. She stated: “You heard it right here: I am not going to do the adult gender clinic review.”