Mock sexual health clinics for school pupils

Abstract

Gives an account of a project run by Optimum Health Services NHS Trust offering attendance at mock sexual health clinics to young people attending schools in Lewisham and Southwark in South London. The mock clinics were set up after the authors visited Sweden on a study tour and observed similar projects in operation there. The principal aim of the mock sexual health clinics was to increase the access of family planning clinics to young people. The pilot project involved about 300 pupils from four schools, ranging from year 10 to year 12. Feedback from pupils showed that they enjoyed attending a clinic away from the school environment, learning how the clinic operated and about the issue of confidentiality, including separate record keeping by the clinic and general practitioners’ surgeries. The main problem identified was that one hour in length sessions were too short. Suggests that it could be useful to offer attendance at mock sexual health clinics for both teachers, as part of INSET training, and parents, particularly parents of pupils with learning disabilities. Emphasizes that all staff involved needed to work within the framework of each school’s sex education policy and existing legislation. Concludes that education and health services need to work in collaboration to ensure that sex education and sexual health services for young people are developed in conjunction with each other, as either one on its own is not sufficient.

Teenagers' use of sexual health services: perceived need, knowledge and ability to access

“…These may take the form of better information about local services at school; involving health service staff in sex education programmes; using school nurses or teachers to book appointments at services on behalf of teenagers; arranging school visits to clinics and trying out mock classroom clinics. 2,[43][44][45][46][47] However, our research also suggests that talking with friends may be important, lending support to peer delivery of sex education to complement more traditional teacher-based methods (see, for example, the studies by Mellanby et al 48 and Forrest et al 49 ).…”