AimsTo assess the level of understanding and difficulties encountered when obtaining sexual health details of their patients among mental health clinicians.BackgroundPeople with mental health problems, especially those treated with psychiatric medication experience greater rates of sexual difficulties than those in the general population. Mental health practitioners need to examine personal beliefs and attitudes about sexuality among people with mental health problems. Providing information about sexuality and sexual practice benefits and enhances the quality of life of people with mental health problems. Therefore taking a sexual history should be an integral part of psychiatric assessment.MethodAn online survey consisted of 17 questions to cover 3 areas of objectives mentioned above was created using Survey Monkey. A link to the survey was emailed to all the clinicians who perform psychiatric assessments. Response collection and data analysis was performed by the trust IT team.ResultTotal of 54 clinicians participated in the survey representing nurses, junior, middle grade doctors and consultants. Almost all stated that mental health patients have capacity to make appropriate decisions about their sexual behaviour patterns. 43% thought people with mental health problems don't have similar patterns of sexual behaviour compared to people without mental health problems. 11% stated that people with mental health problems do not experience greater rates of sexual difficulties than those in the general population. Nearly a third did not believe that telling patients about potential sexual side effects may lead to poor compliance. Nearly 70% stated taking a sexual history should be an integral part of psychiatric assessment. 44% reported lack of knowledge and skills when talking about sexual health and 33% avoided asking about sexual health due to lack of knowledge. Half of the clinicians avoided asking about sexual health due to the fear of embarrassing or causing distress to patients while 16% avoided asking about sexual health due to self-embarrassment. 65% talk about sexual health issues only if patients brought them up.During last 3 clinical encounters majority never asked about sexual difficulties, high risk behaviour and drug side-effects related to sexual difficulties. A significant proportion of clinicians never asked about contraception from their female clients.ConclusionSurvey revealed majority of mental health clinicians lack understanding and skills about sexual health issues highlighting the importance of raising awareness among clinicians about sexual health issues.
Background/introductionWith recent commissioning changes, non NHS providers are increasingly being awarded contracts to manage services including HIV care. There is little data on patient views and experiences around this change.Aim(s)/objectivesTo obtain service user view of the aspects of the HIV service which they consider important in the landscape of commissioning changes.MethodsA patient survey was carried out in a community-based HIV service managed by a non-NHS provider. Questions were created to cover the most affected areas of the service due to the changes of HIV service provision.ResultsA representative sample of 44 attenders over 2 months undertook the survey; 34 men and 10 women. All were satisfied with the service. However some expressed concerns since change of provider, such as “services are being stripped off”, “not enough staff”, “standards have fallen”, “staff are under severe stress”. The proportion that rated the following aspects of the service as very important or important to patients are as follows: 24hour on-call service (98%), clinician access to investigation (95%), HIV team involvement in teaching wider NHS (98%) and current location (95%), HIV team involvement in their inpatient care (98%) and co-location of HIV and Sexual Health service (100%). The majority (86%) wanted an NHS provider, while 7% had no preference.Discussion/conclusionThe majority of patients preferred an NHS provider, with co-located Sexual Health services. They rated links with acute trust and the wider NHS as important aspects of their care. This needs to be considered while commissioning, planning and delivering future services.
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