Ethical Guidelines Related to Mental Health Care

For the record...

Mental health professionals need to be certified or licensed to practice in a given country according to that country’s professional regulations (Fraser, 2009b; Pope & Vasquez, 2011). Professionals must adhere to the ethical codes of their professional licensing or certifying organizations in all of their work with trans- sexual, transgender, and gender-nonconforming clients.

Treatment aimed at trying to change a person’s gender identity and lived gender expression to become more congruent with sex assigned at birth has been attempted in the past (Gelder & Marks, 1969; Greenson, 1964), yet without success, particularly in the long-term (Cohen-Kettenis & Kuiper, 1984; Pauly, 1965).

Such treatment is no longer considered ethical.

If mental health professionals are uncomfortable with, or inexperienced in, working with transsexual, transgender, and gender- nonconforming individuals and their families, they should refer clients to a competent provider or, at minimum, consult with an expert peer. If no local practitioners are available, consultation may be done via telehealth methods, assuming local requirements for distance consultation are met.

 From the WPATH Standards of Care v7(PDF)

Mental Health of Transgender Children Who Are Supported in Their Identities

Mental Health of Transgender Children Who Are Supported in Their Identities Olsen et al Pediatrics March 2016

CONCLUSIONS: Socially transitioned transgender children who are supported in their gender identity have developmentally normative levels of depression and only minimal elevations in anxiety, suggesting that psychopathology is not inevitable within this group. Especially striking is the comparison with reports of children with GID; socially transitioned transgender children have notably lower rates of internalizing psychopathology than previously reported among children with GID living as their natal sex.

 It's not GID per se that causes the horrific suicide rates in Trans kids. It's the combination of lack of supportive treatment and persecution - and even kids with a supportive environment havce elevated anxiety about that.

"Bathroom Bills" and other transphobic legislation kills kids. We have the proof of that.