By Laura Hughes (Clinical Manager)
On Saturday 20th June, Harmless were honoured to march and speak with the 1500 people who gathered for Trans Pride in Nottingham.
6% of people accessing our suicide crisis service have been trans; a significant overrepresentation compared to the general population (0.5%). TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) may try to say that the trans community is weaponising suicide, but Harmless must advocate that this is not true. The evidence, and the lived experiences of trans people, align to tell us that the trans community are particularly vulnerable to self harm and suicide. Trans people deserve to be believed when they tell us the struggles they are facing.
On Friday 19th June, Harmless wrote to five people within Government, all in the positions of highest power when it comes to mental health, suicide prevention and equality. We wrote to them with an urgent clinical risk assessment, using our expertise of the evidence, and we advocated for the proposed EHRC Code of Practice to be rejected on the grounds of it significantly increasing the risk of suicide within trans people.
Harmless are here for trans people, and are actively joining the fight for their equal rights. Our service has specific measures in place to affirm trans gender identities, including:
- the ability to give us your chosen name in your self-referral into our service
- we have no access to any of your NHS records, including your deadname or assigned sex at birth
- the ability to tell us your pronouns at referral, and these will be respected
- we will co-write your clinical notes with you, so you know exactly what is written about you in your notes, and you will see that your name and pronouns will be used throughout
- if you have lost a trans person to suicide, you can be assured that their Queerness and trans identity will be respected in death, and your grief as a trans person will be understood and supported
- we are Your Spaces Too accredited, and we have a toilet in our building that all genders can use with dignity
- we have Queer people at all levels of management, and clinicians who specialise in this support
All of this should be the bare minimum.
Our staff members, Laura and Sim, were so privileged to hear testimonies from trans people who courageously told us their stories of struggle and hope at Pride. To the people who approached us and told us your stories: thank you. Your words and feedback are so important to us.
If you are a trans person who has been affected by mental health, self harm or suicide, or if you have ever felt hopeless about the state of the world or your future as a trans or genderqueer person, take this moment to reflect on the 1500 people marching at Trans Pride on Saturday. All of those people have your back, they are fighting for you and your right to exist. You are not alone.
Harmless is a safe space for you, please know that will never change.
Pride is hope, and with hope, there is a future.
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If you or someone you know needs support from Harmless or The Tomorrow Project, you can make a referral via the button below.
