CERSH Loddon Mallee Sexual Health Forum Report

Transcription

1 CERSH Loddon Mallee Sexual Health Forum Report Summary On 2 nd March 2016 CERSH hosted the Loddon Mallee Sexual Health Forum that brought together 58 stakeholders from across Victoria to share knowledge and updates about sexual health and health promotion in the Loddon Mallee region and across Victoria. The forum was facilitated by comedian Nelly Thomas. Participants represented a diverse range of organisations and worked across the health, education and support services sectors. A number of state-wide sexual health services attended the forum to network with local health care workers and contribute to state-wide services information displays. State-wide services that attended the forum included: Rainbow Network; Living Positive Victoria, Straight Arrows, Victorian AIDs Council, Hepatitis Victoria, The Centre For Culture Ethnicity and Health and Family Planning Victoria Forum Objectives To facilitate networking opportunities for rural health care professionals and other sectors that support access to sexual health services in the region, particularly for young people, Aboriginal communities and LGBTI youth To prompt discussion around planning for future sexual health services and health promotion initiatives in the Loddon Mallee region To facilitate networking opportunities for rural health care workers and state-wide sexual health services To inspire rural health care workers with a sense of enthusiasm and build momentum around sexual health in the region To share experiences from regional projects, that have in the past, or have the potential in the future, to reduce the rate of sexually transmitted infections in the Loddon Mallee region To empower participants with knowledge and networks required to conduct effective sexual health promotion initiatives in their region Speakers and Presentations In addition to being the MC for the forum comedian Nelly Thomas presented an engaging introduction to set the scene for the day. Invited speakers included: Associate Professor Jane Tomnay, Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health, The University of Melbourne. Overview of current CERSH work and approaches. Draft v1 15 March 2016 CERSH Loddon Mallee Sexual Health Forum Report 1

2 Professor Jane Hocking, The University of Melbourne. Update on STIs in Victoria current issues. Dee Gilby, Department of Health and Human Services Loddon Mallee. Updates on Victorian Public Health & Wellbeing Plan, National BBV/STI Strategies & Victorian implementation, Hepatitis C treatments, Loddon Mallee Sexual Health & BBV/STI Services and the Loddon Mallee Prevention Network. Ashley Chapman, Nexus Primary Health. Community Engagement in Action #YOLO Live Well social marketing campaign. Workers from local services in the Loddon Mallee region also presented brief regional snapshots to highlight work in sexual health and youth support across the region, presentations included: Hayden Collins, Swan Hill District Health. Swan Hill Sexual Health Snapshot; Danielle Couch, Loddon Mallee Aboriginal Reference Group (LMARG) Loddon Mallee Working Together for Health Pilot Project; Louise Holland, Bendigo Community Health Services. Men s Health; Lee Kennedy, Youth Support + Advocacy Services (YSAS). Overview of YSAS and his counselling work; and Alexia Stephens, Northern Districts Community Health. Condom Vending Machine Project in Gannawarra shire. Copies of all Forum presentations are available on the CERSH website. Workshop The workshop session Next Steps for Rural Sexual Health in the Loddon Mallee, prompted discussion around the skills and expertise among the existing workforce in the region that currently supports access to sexual health clinical services, information and health promotion. Notes from the group discussions are included in Appendix 1A and 1B. Participants identified a number of key strengths and characteristics that local, rural workers have in common including: Knowledge of rural communities and connections with communities in the Loddon Mallee region; Shared passion, commitment, willingness (proactive) and determination to optimise SH and wellbeing; Lived experience of the issues faced by young people, LGBTI and Aboriginal communities in rural and regional areas; Links to existing formal and informal networks and utilising these networks including connections with CERSH and the CERSH sexual health networks; Already integrating sexual health and wellbeing into our work despite not being specifically funded to do this work; Have normalised talking about sexual health in work settings and everyday conversation; Are educating and empowering people to access sexual health services and condoms; State-wides services can support rural services; We like people and want everyone to be healthy; Interest in condom vending machines; Draft v1 15 March 2016 CERSH Loddon Mallee Sexual Health Forum Report 2

3 Understanding of community engagement and social determinants of health and health promotion. The workshop also identified a number of actions that could be (collectively and realistically) increased, within the existing capacity of the workforce in the region, to support better access to sexual health and prevention services in the region. These included: More collaboration, work regionally link across borders and sectors and share expertise and experiences; Utilising existing resources and data to support our work; Develop information roadshows Sexual Health Rodeo ; Collective advocacy we are the drivers of this work ; Keep building networks; Advocacy and raising awareness - around gaps in services (E.g. HIV support, GP services and allied health, sexual health ); Focus on sexual health for older people; Partnerships and face-to - face relationships, look for new opportunities to partner Further community development, building inclusive practice for Indigenous and LGBTI people; Working with families and parents; Language and terminology is consistent for SH education, normalising SH questions; Training and education looking at peer models, champions, Indigenous leaders. Participants were also encouraged to think about and reflect on individual actions that would contribute to improving sexual health in their region. Responses were written on good luck symbols and stuck onto a fortune tree (Figure 2). Figure 2: Fortune Tree and forum participants in action Draft v1 15 March 2016 CERSH Loddon Mallee Sexual Health Forum Report 3

4 Participants and Evaluations Overall 58 participants from across the Loddon Mallee region and Victoria attended the forum (Appendix 2). Twenty seven participants filled out an evaluation at the conclusion of the forum. Evaluations showed that participants worked with a broad range of community groups including Young people, Aboriginal communities, LGBTI groups and others (Figure1). 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Describe the setting or community you work with Figure 1: Participant responses to evaluation question Describe the community you work with (E.g. young people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, clinic setting, rural etc. The evaluations indicated that participants felt the opportunity to network, collaborate and share information were the most useful aspects of the forum. Other participants mentioned that the opportunity to hear specific examples from local services and learn about how to establish particular services in local areas such as condom vending machines, medical termination of pregnancy (MTOP), Pre Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV, chlamydia screening and treatment were useful. Other aspects of presentations such as how to do health promotion branding and normalise conversations about sexual health were also mentioned as useful information that participants would be able to integrate into their work. The full agenda is included in Appendix 3. Conclusions CERSH will continue to work with stakeholders in the Loddon Mallee region to support the implementation of the actions identified by the workshop participants to improve access to sexual health clinical and prevention services in the region. CERSH will continue to regularly co-ordinate the Central Victoria and Mallee Sexual Health Network meetings as a way to facilitate ongoing networking, collaboration and support workforce capacity building in the region. While a key objective of the forum was to facilitate networking opportunities for rural health care professionals and other sectors that support access to sexual health services in the region, particularly for young people, Aboriginal communities and LGBTI youth, other community groups Draft v1 15 March 2016 CERSH Loddon Mallee Sexual Health Forum Report 4

5 such as older people and parents and families were identified as groups that are emerging as important to work with in the future. Acknowledgements CERSH wishes to acknowledge all of the participants for sharing their experiences, their commitment and willingness to travel to Bendigo to participate in the Loddon Mallee Sexual Health Forum. The time and effort of the presenters who delivered engaging presentations for the forum is gratefully acknowledged. We thank comedian Nelly Thomas for facilitating the day. We also acknowledge the state- wide sexual health services that attended to network and share information with local workers. CERSH acknowledges funding support from the Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services. Glossary CERSH HIV LGBTI MTOP PrEP SH YP Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health Human Immunodeficiency Virus Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual and Intersexed Medical termination of pregnancy Pre Exposure Prophylaxis Sexual health Young people Appendices *All files saved in All Staff drive Y:\CERSH\LMR Sexual Health Networks\March 2016 meeting\report and linked below Appendix 1A Workshop group discussion notes Q1.pdf Appendix 1B Workshop Group Discussion Notes Q2-3.pdf Appendix 2 List of Participants.pdf Appendix 3 Agenda Draft v1 15 March 2016 CERSH Loddon Mallee Sexual Health Forum Report 5