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Scientists react to the Cass Review final report.
Dr Roman Raczka, President-Elect of the British Psychological Society, said:
“We want to commend Dr Hilary Cass for her thorough and sensitive review into an area that is highly complex and controversial to many. All too often, the way this controversy has played out in public has been damaging to the very children, young people and families desperately seeking help. We wholeheartedly join Dr Cass’s call for an end to the deeply concerning, public bullying and vilification of professionals working in this challenging area. When so many children, young people and their families are waiting years for assessment and care, it’s right that the primary focus now should be on expanding capacity across the country.
“It’s clear that while psychological therapies will continue to have an incredibly important role to play in the new services, we accept that more needs to be done to assess the effectiveness of these psychological interventions.
“The prescribing of puberty blockers has received a great deal of focus both in wider discussions about gender, and within the report itself. We agree with Dr Cass that the controversy around this issue has sometimes taken focus away from the important role of psychological interventions in gender services to support young people and their families. We agree that it’s vital to create a sound evidence base and better understanding of the long-term effects of puberty blockers and the need for more data in this area to help young people make informed decisions about their treatment and to support the clinicians providing care and treatment.
“Dr Cass and her team have produced a thought-provoking, detailed and wide-ranging list of recommendations, which will have implications for all professionals working with gender-questioning children and young people. It will take time to carefully review and respond to the whole report, but I am sure that psychology, as a profession, will reflect and learn lessons from the review, its findings and recommendations. We warmly welcome the recommendation to establish a consortium of relevant professional bodies to identify gaps in professional training and develop training materials to upskill the workforce. As the body that accredits professional training courses for psychologists and the wider psychological workforce in the UK, the BPS looks forward to contributing to this important work as it develops.”
Dr Lade Smith CBE, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said:
“Children who are gender questioning also commonly experience mental illness. It is extremely important that every child who is gender questioning has timely access to services that are holistic and respond to their individual needs.
“Dr Hillary Cass OBE has published a rigorous independent review. Crucially, it is informed by the views of people with lived experience, but also a broad range of views from stakeholders, healthcare professionals, social workers and of course, parents.
“The College will now review, in detail, the recommendations of this important report and what they mean for patients, psychiatrists and mental health services. Once this work is complete, we will respond in full to its findings.”
The Cass Review: ‘Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people: Final report’ was published at 00:01 UK time on Wednesday 10 April 2024.
Declared interests
Dr Lade Smith: “Dr Smith provided the views of the College as part of the stakeholder group during the Cass Review. Additionally, she reviewed some of the training modules provided by the AoMRC as part of the training refresher given to healthcare professionals providing gender services. Dr Smith is a consultant psychiatrist but does not provide gender services to children.”
For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received