Your voice, your health Camden series: Sexual Health

Healthwatch Camden set out to explore the health concerns of young people between the ages of 13-24 years in Camden, in three key areas, including sexual health.  They spoke to 64 young people.

Many young people don’t rely on local services and medical professionals for information or advice about their sexual health. Instead, there is growing reliance on digital and personal networks which can have both positive and negative consequences for their sexual health. Those very features of digital networks, especially social media platforms, that make it effective in disseminating sexual health knowledge, i.e. ease in accessibility, greater reach, and anonymity when seeking sexual health information, leaves the young person extremely vulnerable to sexual health misinformation and harmful content. 

Personal networks provide young people with the opportunity to explore their sexual health in a safe space, through trusted figures like their parents and friends. However, most of the time the level of information is not comprehensive enough for young people to be able to make informed choices about their sexual health. 

The diverse population of Camden necessitates sexual health services and education that demonstrates cultural responsiveness and religious literacy. With the inherent influence of personal and social factors in shaping a young person’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviour around sexual health, addressing them will be crucial for any public health intervention to improve outcomes in this population. 

Stigma associated with sexual health is attributable to some of these beliefs and value systems, with young people feeling embarrassed and ashamed about discussing their sexual health with peers, educators, or medical professionals. It also affects health-seeking behaviours, where young people refrain from attending sexual health clinics even if their location was known about, due to fear of being identified by staff, peers, or members of the community. 

Sexual health education in schools can play an important role in guiding young people away from these unhealthy emotions. It can achieve this by fostering safe, dynamic conversations about sexual health among their pupils, with a comprehensive, relatable, and practical curriculum. Currently, although young people receive compulsory sexual health education (RSE) in school, a large majority of them were completely unaware of the sexual health services available around them. This is potentially indicative of young people’s lack of meaningful engagement with the RSE material. 

Healthwatch found that the current curriculum failed to address the wider scope of sexual health topics which were important to them, such as the emotional and social dimensions of sexual health.