Abandoned Duty of Care to Transgender Youth

“Mental health professionals have abandoned their duty of care when it comes to treating trans-identifying youth, and the long-term effects could be disastrous, a family therapist said.

‘We’ve allowed our role to be changed in the public eye,’ Stephanie Winn, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Portland, Oregon, told Fox News.  Therapists’ new role is ‘essentially green lighting or rubber-stamping people along into these medical procedures when that’s never been our role in the treatment of any other issue.’

Youth access to gender transition medical therapy such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery have been widely debated in recent years with critics saying minors are too young to be altering their bodies, sometimes permanently.  Advocates, however, argue that such care is life-saving since untreated trans youth face higher rates of depression and suicide.

Winn argued that a narrative has been established that encourages mental health professionals to accept a child’s trans identity without scrutiny, leaving potential mental illnesses untreated.  Youth experiencing suicidal ideation and other distress, consequently, aren’t always getting proper care, and in some instances, may receive life-altering treatment that could cause additional issues later on, she said.

The number of transgender teens under 18 doubled between 2017 and 2020, from .7% to 1.4%, according to UCLA research.  The June report, based on government health surveys, also found that just under 43% of the 1.6 million people who identify as transgender in the U.S. are between 13 and 25.

Winn said she’s becoming ‘increasingly concerned’ about the trend of youth identifying as transgender or non-binary and ‘the lifelong, irreversible medical experiments that are happening to children as a result of this ideology.’  She added that in 10-15 years, ‘we’re going to see a transition regret crisis, and unfortunately, we are going to have to worry about some of the most frightening mental health outcomes as part of that .'”

“In the past two years, 25 states have introduced legislation that would restrict access to gender transition medical therapy for minors. Meanwhile, 27 states [25 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico] have passed legislation restricting ‘conversion therapy’ for trans youth, which GLAAD defines as ‘any attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.’

Mental health professionals fear backlash and could risk losing their licenses if they try to treat gender dysphoria patients with anything besides transition therapy, according to Winn, who herself has faced such trouble…

‘A completely different standard of care’ has been established for treating gender dysphoria compared to other mental health disorders as a result of public pressure and trainings from trans activists, Winn said.

The therapist believes mental health professionals…aren’t adequately trying to determine if their patients’ feelings of gender dysphoria are manifested from other frequently associated mental illnesses, rather than the other way around.

Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine said in an April interview with NPR that ‘there is no argument among medical professionals — pediatricians, pediatric endocrinologists, adolescent medicine physicians, adolescent psychiatrists, psychologists, etc. — about the value and the importance of gender-affirming care.’

Levine, who is transgender, pointed to numerous medical organizations — including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry — that support ‘evidence-based standards of care’ for gender transition therapy.

…In addition to affirming patients, Winn said mental health professionals are expected to ‘drive a wedge between families.’

‘We’re expected to tell parents that they must let their children lead, even though children need structure, rules, discipline and boundaries,’ she told Fox News.  ‘And that if they don’t, they’re bigots [1][2][3][4].'”

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[1]  Yahoo! News (FoxNews), “Mental health professionals have ‘abandoned’ the duty of care in treatment of trans youth, therapist says” by Teny Sahakian, 10/22/22, https://news.yahoo.com/mental-health-professionals-abandoned-duty-060019707.html.

[2]  New York Post, “Gender ideology is a boon to Big Pharma and a threat to parental rights” by Pedro Gonzalez, 8/20/21, https://nypost.com/2021/08/20/gender-ideology-a-boon-to-big-pharma-and-threat-to-parental-rights/.

[3]  WebMD, “Remove Sex from Public Birth Certificates, AMA Says” by Marcia Frellick, 6/16/21, https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20210616/remove-sex-from-public-birth-certificates-ama-says.

[4]  Aleteia, “Catholic doctors oppose AMA’s call to remove sex ID from birth certificates” by John Burger, 9/17/21, https://aleteia.org/2021/09/17/catholic-doctors-oppose-amas-call-to-remove-gender-from-birth-certificates/.

READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse  https://www.avoicereclaimed.com