Dear all, Your advice would be appreciated. We have several students here at Central who are in the process of gender reassignment. We have good links with an organisation that is able to provide specific mentoring for these students, which offers support to young trans people and those who are questioning their gender identity. Our issue here is regarding funding. Presently we have several students who have pre-existing mental health conditions who have been recommended mental health mentoring. They have requested that this mentoring be provided by this specialist organisation as they feel that the symptoms of their original condition are exacerbated by their gender issues. So far there has not been a problem with SFE funding the support provided by this organisation, but we are interested to know if other institutions have experienced any difficulties. We are also concerned about other students that come to us at the beginning of this process who don't have a pre-existing mental health condition and who would benefit from mentoring. We understand that Gender Identity Disorder is a recognised mental health condition but this diagnosis is often made quite late in the transitioning process and students need mentoring in the earlier stages when trying to make sense of their feelings. We would be really interested to know people's ideas about how we go about ensuring that these students are adequately supported. Many thanks Jo ................................................................... Jo Barnes Disability Services Coordinator Central School of Speech & Drama University of London Eton Avenue London NW3 3HY Direct: +44 (0) 20 7559 3992 Main: +44 (0) 20 7722 8183 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7559 3998 www.cssd.ac.uk Join us at one of our Open Days: http://www.cssd.ac.uk/events/open-days Follow Central on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CSSDLondon Or Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CSSDLondon YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/cssdlondon Notice of Confidentiality- This email and its attachments are confidential and intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient you may not use, copy, disclose or distribute them. Please contact the sender if you have received this email in error.