Support demanded for Irish youths with gender dysphoria following London clinic closure

The Tavistock Centre in London cannot cope with rising demand, a recent review found. Picture: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

Advocates have demanded the urgent recruitment of child psychiatrists to support Irish children and young people with gender dysphoria following the closure of a London transgender clinic. 

Concerns have been growing about treatment options for young people hoping for appointments under the Treatment Abroad scheme at the Gender Identity Development Service for Children and Adolescents in the Tavistock clinic.

Chair of Transgender Equality Network Ireland (Teni) Sam Blanckensee said Ireland should not be relying on another country for any transgender healthcare services.

“Supporting people to access gender-affirming healthcare early is key, and just making sure that young people who are experiencing gender dysphoria get that support,” they said.

What we want to see is that support in Ireland, a supportive system, helping families and young people to make really informed decisions.” 

In 2019, the HSE’s steering committee on transgender services recommended a consultant child psychiatrist run a dedicated service within the mental health services, but this has been hampered by recruitment challenges.

“To be honest, we would be definitely saying that in an ideal world all CAMHS psychiatrists would be trained up, and able to provide this [service] on a regional basis,” the Teni chair said, referring to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

A spokesman for the College of Psychiatry said: “There remains an urgent need for a centralised, planned, and funded recruitment and retention campaign for child and adolescent psychiatrists as well as other multi-disciplinary team professionals.“ 

He said this is “critically important” as these specialists give essential support to young people.

The National Gender Service (NGS) is currently seeing people who were referred “between two and half to three years” ago. It says it is working to reduce this wait. 

A HSE spokeswoman said it has been working to ensure the Children’s Health Ireland gender identity service at Crumlin continues.

“A real concern for the HSE at this time, in terms of our care for people who need this service, is that both the adult and children’s service are experiencing very long waiting times,” she said.

This is due to a significant difficulty recruiting expert staff, and an increase in referrals, and need for the service that has not been matched by the pace of development and training.” 

She said the Tavistock clinic is closed to new referrals and they are “actively exploring” options for specialist assessment services.

The CASS review into the Tavistock clinic found it could not cope with rising demand, and regional services are needed instead. Over 5,000 referrals were made during 2021-22, compared to just under 250 in 2011-12.

It also found “better data and evidence” needed to underpin assessments in transgender services. 

“It is essential that these children and young people can access the same level of psychological and social support as any other child or young person in distress,” it stated.