REFORMING Ashley Youth Detention Centre and adding rehabilitation programs to reduce recidivism will create better outcomes for incarcerated youth and help reduce the need for a new prison.
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No Meander Valley prison group welcomes the courageous and thoughtful views and experience of Will Smith (The Examiner, June 26). Will is a well-respected advocate for youth empowerment through his JCP youth programs and we urge decision-makers to listen closely to him.
The government should reconsider the closing of Ashley and instead fully fund comprehensive rehabilitation programs within Ashley and intervention programs for vulnerable youth in the community, so they don't end up being detained, as a last resort.
Will Smith's additional view that Tasmania does not need another adult prison and that we should work on reducing recidivism to prevent a growing prison population, is supported by other eminent Tasmanians in the Justice Reform Initiative and the No Meander Valley Prison group.
Kerin Booth, President, No Meander Valley Prison
Bless you, Glenara Lakes, nurses, and health care workers
SOMETIMES life does not go like you planned or expected, and not in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I would be such a burden on so many people you love or strangers that you meet through necessity. To give my wonderful carer some well earned respite, I was accepted into Glenara Lakes Home for the Elderly. And Oh! What a blessing, it is like a home away from home, and to think it is actually here in Launceston. Every day Glenara Lakes, whether it's cloudy or not, gives it a feeling of sunshine. Every health care worker and nurse finds it extremely hard to hide their "angel wings". Every day they try to elevate you to the best you can possibly be. Every one of them deserves to be added to the King's honour list. I came in with such reservations, and doubts and I was so, so, wrong and would you believe even the food is of restaurant standard. I struggle with the loss of my responsibility, mobility, and dignity, but Glenara Lakes so gently lifts that burden, they elevate you into a feeling of being special and important.
"Thank you" feels so inadequate for these talented people who go out of their way to make you feel life is important. Bless you, Glenara Lakes, nurses, and health care workers, at the present I feel like a surfer who has caught a three metre wave, which is an over the top exudation.
Peter Doddy, Trevallyn
Review praised
RODNEY Croome has failed to grasp the significance of the Cass Review ratings of gender clinics in Australia outlined in Ben Seeder's important investigative article (The Examiner, June 16).
Dr Cass's alarming ratings on the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne have direct implications for service delivery at the Tasmanian Gender Service. In 2019 the National Association of Practising Psychiatrist (NAPP) had urged the federal government to set up a parliamentary enquiry into the treatment of gender dysphoria in children in Australia to no avail.
The gold standard for treatment of children with gender dysphoria was released by the Australian NAPP in 2022. NAPP's same standard of care is the same as recommended by the Cass Review.
In advocating for the LGBTIQA+ community, Rodney Croome needs to read the Cass Review recommendations so that his comments better reflect the evidence and the science.
The Cass Review additionally reported from whistleblower's concerns, including in Australia, about the ideological pressure put on gender clinic staff by political lobby groups such as Equality Tasmania.
Health Minister Guy Barnett has decided to ignore relentless pressure from ideologically driven lobby groups such as Equality Tasmania who continue to spruik medical interventions that have now been thoroughly discredited.
Guy Barnett should nevertheless act to suspend puberty blockers being prescribed by the Tasmanian Gender Service and the private health sector pending the results of a national Enquiry.
Isla MacGregor, Fern Tree
Footpath food question
IT SEEMS I was on the wrong track for veggies growing in plots on our nature strips (The Examiner, June 25) after learning motor vehicle pollution was a factor in discontinuing this practice. Apparently all the produce needed quite a degree of washing to be edible.
I expect the same problem arises on the park lots that Council installed in Inveresk and Kingsway, or any food consumed on footpath venues?
Ron Baines, Kings Meadows
