Accessible health care front of mind for Sexual Health Month
Running from 4 September to 2 October, Sexual Health Month is more than just a reminder of the importance of open discussion about safe sex and staying STI free.
With almost 1 in 5 Australians having had a Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) at least once in their lifetimes, according to government data, addressing STI spread remains an ongoing challenge for health professionals.
But as Professor Christopher Fairley (AO), Director of the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, describes – it is not condom use or reductions in sexual partner numbers which hold the key.
“Access to health care is a far stronger STI control strategy than promoting condom use or reduction in partner number,” says Professor Fairley.
This follows a study, conducted by Professor Fairley and other members of the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, which determined that “accessible health care has a powerful effect on the incidence of STIs”.
As Professor Fairley summarises, “If access to health care is poor, STI rates are high. If access to health care is good, STI rates are low.”
Accessibility of sexual health care to Victorians around the state has been a particularly significant challenge for many years, yet there is hope that a solution is already well underway.
“We have one main sexual health service in Victoria, MSHC located in Carlton, and there’s [been] very few others,” says Dr. Richard Teague, a physician at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre. “But we [now] have a program called VSHN – Victorian Sexual Health Network – whereby Melbourne Sexual Health [Centre] is educating doctors in general practices located in certain areas around Melbourne where there’s traditionally poor screening and STI care.”
“[This is] in order to decentralise care, so that someone in Geelong or Anglesea can go to a clinic where the doctors have had some training.”
Since its introduction, the Victorian Sexual Health Network has steadily begun to grow, now including eleven GP clinics around the state as partner services to the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre through this network.
The partnership enables these GP clinics to offer STI check-ups and treatment, with sites in suburbs such as Anglesea, Belmont, Caroline Springs and Yarram, among others.
With hopes that the Victorian Sexual Health Network will continue to grow, the team at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre are also hopeful of finally beginning to make progress in halting the STI-spread in the community through improving access to sexual healthcare and, ultimately, empowering Victorians to take their sexual health into their own hands.
To find out more on how to stay safe and where to get tested, visit staySTIfree.org.au today.
