To be seen by a gender specialist within the NHS, a young person needs to be referred to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS). The GIDS accepts referrals from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) as well as other health, social care, and education professionals, including directly from GPs. GIDS national contract covers referrals […]

When someone dies by suicide people often feel angry and may look for someone to blame. Health professionals sometimes become the focus for anger and criticisms, which may or may not be justified. Some of the people we talked to knew that the person who had died was very good at convincing the doctors that […]

People with a long-term indwelling catheter may manage well at home without much professional help (see ‘Informal care: caring for a relative with a long-term catheter‘). However, some people, particularly those paralysed through a spinal cord injury, need professional care when they leave hospital. Some may need full time care. Professional care at home is […]

Living now Having HIV helped people to think about the value of life now: “Once you realise your mortality, then that focuses your life to do things that you want to do, as opposed to doing things to survive.” In other words, people started to think about their present quality of life. Focusing on ‘now’ […]

Hormone therapy in young people, gender affirming hormone treatment to masculinise with testosterone or feminise with oestrogen, is, where possible, preceded by hormone blockers in the early stages of pubertal development. This intervention temporarily interrupts puberty and is considered reversible. It enables decisions about the future to be made without the stress of the unwanted […]

Information needs that people told us about included: before diagnosis, about the tests they were having and what conditions they were being tested for after diagnosis, the types and symptoms of MND information about research into causes and new treatments advice on what aids and equipment were available and how to obtain them benefits and […]

Part of getting over depression was finding a less troubled – and more authentic – way of living and working. For some this involved changing their work, reducing work, giving up work or taking early retirement. There were personal and financial consequences, but many felt that depression had given them an opportunity to rethink their […]

This research was funded by a London-based charity and so all the people we interviewed lived in London. We asked them to think about what it was like to live in London after life-changing injury. People often referred to themselves as ‘Londoners’ and said they could not imagine living anywhere else. London was described as […]

People who are making decisions about screening and diagnosis for sickle cell disorders often ask what life would be like for a child affected by these conditions. This can be a difficult question to answer, because the symptoms and quality of life differ from person to person. Some people will have very few health problems; […]

A long-running debate is whether people who get involved in research long term lose their fresh ‘outsider’ perspective and become too ‘professionalised’. The worry is that people get so used to the research environment and research jargon that they lose their distance and ability to challenge, and may become too cosy with researchers. But it […]