I’m haunted by the story of Charlie. He was a young trans boy who for years was bullied and misgendered at school. He had great difficulty at expressing his feelings and desires, and so got labelled autistic. And because of that, he was denied puberty blockers.
I so love and treasure all of your writing Jo! However, having worked as a mental health nurse for over 20 years, I’m sorry to say that not all of my colleagues had empathy. Infact, I’d go as far as to say that some of them (especially those in senior positions) seemed to have a degree of psychopathy! Yes, we definitely need more staff, but we also need to get rid of managers who perpetuate the status quo out of self interest. Otherwise, I fear we will see a lot more tragedies such as the one you described so empathetically about Charlie.
I so love and treasure all of your writing Jo! However, having worked as a mental health nurse for over 20 years, I’m sorry to say that not all of my colleagues had empathy. Infact, I’d go as far as to say that some of them (especially those in senior positions) seemed to have a degree of psychopathy! Yes, we definitely need more staff, but we also need to get rid of managers who perpetuate the status quo out of self interest. Otherwise, I fear we will see a lot more tragedies such as the one you described so empathetically about Charlie.