The mother of a transgender woman who took her own life has said her death was “preventable with access to the right support”.
Alice Litman, 20, had been waiting to receive gender-affirming healthcare for 1,023 days when she died on Thursday 26 May 2022 in Brighton, the family said, before the start of the inquest into her death.
Ms Litman was referred to the Gender Identity Development Service in 2019 and later the Gender Identity Clinic, because she was going to turn 18 while on the waiting list, the inquest held at Sussex County Cricket Ground in Hove was told.
In a statement read out in court today (Monday 18 September), her mother Caroline Litman, a former NHS psychiatrist, said: “I do not want any other transgender person to face a future with as much despair as Alice did.
“I do not want another parent to live the rest of their life with their child in a jar on the mantlepiece, instead of in their warm embrace.
“I believe Alice’s death was preventable with access to the right support, and that change must happen.”
The court was told that Alice first told her sister Kate that she felt that she was a woman in September 2018.
She went to see a doctor about her gender identity later in 2018.
Dr Litman told the court that her daughter had tried to end her life twice previously and that she had felt as though she was in the wrong body.
Ms Litman, who was originally from Surrey but lived in Albion Hill, Brighton, was referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and to the Community Mental Health Recovery Service (CMHRS) before she turned 18.
Her mother told Brighton and Hove Coroner’s Court: “I did not feel that CAMHS took Alice’s problems seriously enough.
“The CAMHS nursing team effectively acted as gatekeepers, making it very hard for Alice to access support that she clearly needed and would not have received had it not been for intervention from her GP at our insistence.”
She added: “The abrupt cut-off in mental health support when Alice turned 18 also had a real impact on her.
“It did not seem that adult services (CMHRS) took her self-harm history, and the impact of gender-affirming treatment delays on her emotional wellbeing, seriously enough.
“CMHRS’s co-ordination with CAMHS in assessing her needs, in my view, was totally inadequate.
“Alice was suddenly cast out of care because she did not meet the adult threshold for intervention, despite having been identified as needing support the week before.
“The sudden switch between services (and thresholds for support) on the day she turned 18 left her abandoned at a moment when she particularly needed help.”
The inquest continues.
Sounds like he had mental health issues. I too had to wait months to see a consultant about peeing blood for a year! Other people have to wait for services too! In the end I want private, perhaps he should have too! There are lots of people waiting on the NHS for far more important things than this!
She, Johnny. Or if you’re not sure, they.
Mental health for whatever reason should be prioritised, as should peeing blood. The problem is that adult public health services have been stripped down – once Alice turned 18 she no longer had access to that support, and not everyone can afford to go private.
We shouldn’t be arguing about who has a higher priority on the waiting lists, lists that have grown excessively over the past 10 years, we should as a society be working towards having no waiting list at all.
A very good point, although I believe the cutoff is 25, same point still holds. I have witnessed several patients outgrow the MH systems that are available, and that sudden loss of support can oftentimes be the catalyst for people to go into crisis.
Makes for a good argument for at least a transitional service moving forward.
“far more important things than this” johnny she literally died