GRS-Wales Community

[Pippa]

Hello, I am looking for friendship and advice from someone else like me in Wales. I have signed the petition but need some support myself finding counselling and treatment.

[crimsone]

I am struggling for a treatment referral to HCW myself. I'm afraid that at no other time would I suggest this to a person in distress, but really, the best thing you can do is to...

1, contact your GP, and get a referral to a hospital psychiatrist
2, get your hospital psychiatrist to request an Out of Area referral for assesment for GID
3, when the report returns, request referral to CHX, (including HCW funding - CHX will request that funding is secured first)
4, keep on at HCW by any means you can - they can't be allowed to think that they can simply get away with the way they are treating us (or anybody else for that matter).

In the mean time, feel free to vent your anger and frustrations here (or anywhere else appropriate).

When it comes to counselling, it may depend on the area in which you live. To the best of my knowledge, Wales doesn't have any councellors specialising on gender in the NHS. Personally, after two years, I've been referred to a psychologist by my local PCT, but how able she will be remains to be seen. As for treatment, I'm afraid HCW have been clear in their policy (to me at least) that any form of private treatment for the condition will barr a patient from NHS treatment in Wales for the condition - a policy which when questioned, resulted in their telling me that self-medication (ie, buying hormones on the black market) would not prevent NHS treatment, but a shared care agreement between my GP and a private psychiatrist would.

I really do empathise with any trouble you may be having - lets hope that HCW see senSe (and obtain a little thing called compassion alongside a little regard for clinical issues) too!

Hugs xx