NHS England agrees to stop referring people to ‘gay cure’ therapy
Staff of the NHS in England have been instructed not to facilitate access to gay “cure” therapy.
Despite the NHS not offering gay conversion therapy directly, some patients seeking to change their sexuality have been connected to organisations which do provide it by NHS staff.
An agreement has now been signed by fourteen organisations, including NHS England, which agrees that the controversial practice should not be offered to patients.
Despite referrals to such practices being rare, some GPs, counsellors and psychotherapists have made them, reports BBC Newsbeat.
‘The Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy in the UK’ ensures that patients won’t be referred to the practices, deemed as damaging by a number of national and global health bodies.
It also ensures that training will be provided to NHS staff, in order to help them support LGBT people who seek such therapy.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder back in 1990, and gay “cure” therapies have been widely condemned by health bodies across the world.
UKIP MEP Roger Helmer last year claimed the NHS should fund ‘gay cure’ therapy.
