Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/912715
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 6 DECEMBER 2017 News 8 SOCIAL EVENTS, SEASONAL PARTIES... Looking for a venue-wi-a-difference for your event? Gianpula Village offers a range of original and unique venues perfect for creating at memorable occasion. To make an enquiry or book a show round call (356) 9974 8923 or email sales@gianpulavillage.com www.gianpulavillage.com CORPORATE EVENTS CLUB HOUSE • VAULT • PENTHOUSE TIA RELJIC A recently opened clinic offer- ing services to "persons with gender issues" will soon be moving location after NGOs objected to its location on Mt Carmel Hospital grounds, ac- cording to health minister Chris Fearne. MaltaToday has learned that the LGBTIQ consultative com- mittee met with Fearne to object to the clinic's location, which is currently adjacent to the main hospital building. A spokesperson for the min- ister has confirmed that the gender clinic is currently run from Tommaso Chetcuti Cen- tre outside Mt Carmel hospi- tal, but said that a new holistic clinic away from Mt Carmel hospital is being planned. "The Gender Clinic is not ideally located, and we are not happy with the decision to place it at Mt Carmel Hospi- tal," Neil Falzon from Auditus told this newspaper, explain- ing that a holistic approach towards gender issues is nec- essary. "A gender clinic should be multidisciplinary." Apart from this, Falzon said that the law has already stopped defining gender is- sues as mental health issues, and that placing the clinic at a mental health institution is therefore a step back after pro- gress made within the legisla- tion. Gabi Calleja, coordina- tor of MGRM said that great care needs to be taken when situating such a clinic, so as not to stigmatise an al- ready vulnerable group. "We would therefore prefer that the Gender Clinic be al- located a different venue." Calleja said that the Cou- ple and Sex Therapy Services, which incorporate the Gender Clinic, are being headed by Dr John Mifsud, a psychiatrist. "Although the services in- clude a multidisciplinary team, we would still hold that it would be preferable for the Director of such services to be a psychosocial professional rather than a psychiatrist." Psy- chosocial professionals include social workers, counselors, and psychologists. "This is also in view of Mal- ta's depathologisation of LGBT identities which was incorpo- rated into the Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Act in Decem- ber of 2016." Minister mulls new holistic clinic in wake of NGOs' objections