STD clinic wants views textually transmitted

Published on Monday 15 November 2010 14:28

Stephen Fry does it, Sarah Brown does it - sometimes it seems like the whole world is tweeting away on Twitter.

Now health bosses are hoping to get young people to start a new conversation about sexual health on the social networking site.

NHS Lothian is asking for feedback on its sexual health services to help it improve and plan for the future, and is offering the chance to take part in the consultation through Twitter and Facebook.

The initiative has drawn some criticism from patient representatives who say such a personal topic should not be addressed on public forums, but NHS Lothian says it wants to encourage as many people as possible to take part in the consultation exercise, particularly the young.

It says the consultation will give the public "the chance to tweet their views on sexual health and HIV services," as it consults on the new draft Lothian Sexual Health and HIV Strategy.

The social networks will be used in addition traditional paper-based consultations and a private online questionnaire.

Jamie Megaw, strategic programme manager for sexual health, said: "We're keen to reach as wide an audience as possible and one of the groups that we know is more at risk of poor sexual health is young people and we know that young people use these social media sites.

"What we really hope to be getting from Twitter is to be raising awareness and to be signposting people to our website."

But the bid to encourage people to discuss sexual health online did not win the support of Margaret Watt, chairwoman of the Scotland Patients' Association who said: "I don't think it's appropriate for it to go on Twitter or even Facebook.

"There's a lot more work needed to help young people understand exactly what these illnesses are and how to avoid them, but I don't think that's the way to do it."

Mr Megaw said he knew the health board may not get many no-holds-barred accounts of patients' sexual health experiences: "People have an option to feedback privately if they want to comment about personal experience."I think health boards haven't been great at using these social media in the past and this is a way of saying 'This is an area that's particularly relevant to young people so this is a good place to start'".

The draft plan pulls together the health board's sexual health strategy for the next five years with its HIV strategy in one document for the first time, and replaces the previous sexual health strategy.

It has four aims - reducing the harm caused by sexual ill health and HIV; supporting people with HIV to live long and healthy lives; reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies, and helping people make confident and competent decisions about sex.

The full strategy and feedback details can be found at www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk/YourHealth/sexualhealth/strategy.asp.