NHS staff told to stop helping patients access gay 'cure' therapy

NHS staff in England have been told that they should no longer refer people to groups offering gay ‘conversion’ therapy.

Fourteen organisations – including NHS England and the British Psychological Society – have signed an agreement to stop offering the therapy patients. While the controversial ‘treatment’ isn’t provided on the NHS, it’s understood that in rare cases staff have put patients in touch with organisations who provide it.

The new ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MoU) recognises that efforts to try to change or alter sexual orientation through psychological therapies are unethical and potentially harmful. It sets out an agreed framework to tackle the issues raised by the practice of conversion therapy in the UK.

The memorandum means that NHS England – the organisation which has day-to-day responsibility for running the NHS – “does not endorse or support conversion therapy”, meaning that GPs will not be able to refer patients for therapy and that no-one employed by the NHS can provide it.

Chartered psychologist Dr Lyndsey Moon, who represented the British Psychological Society on the MoU working group said:

“I am delighted that we have been able to build on the clear position the British Psychological Society has taken on this issue over a number of years.

“The BPS believes that people of same-sex sexual orientations should be regarded as equal members of society. This includes freedom from harassment or discrimination in any sphere, and a right to protection from therapies that purport to change or ‘convert’ sexual orientation.”

Speaking to BBC Newsbeat, Louise from West Yorkshire said she was blackmailed into receiving “treatment” for being gay in 2007 by her evangelical church.

She later attended group sessions of around 20 women near Liverpool. “[Most] were married with children. They were there without the knowledge of their partners or their children.

“If I’d been more impressionable I think I could have been really damaged by the process.”

The organisations signed up to the MoU are:

· Association of Christian Counsellors (ACC)

· British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP)

· British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)

· British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC)

· British Psychological Society (BPS)

· Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists (GLADD)

· NHS England

· National Counselling Society

· PACE

· Pink Therapy

· Relate

· Royal College of GPs

· Royal College of Psychiatrists

· UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)

NHS staff told to stop helping patients access gay ‘cure’ therapy

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