Reproductive and Sexual Health Report: SSHC, Policies, and Populations

This report examines the services provided by the Sydney Sexual Health Centers (SSHC), an Australian organization focused on reproductive and sexual health. It aligns the organization's policies with international, national, and state-based agendas, detailing the populations served and their prior...Read More

Running head: REPRODUCTIVE AND SEXUAL HEALTH
REPRODUCTIVE AND SEXUAL HEALTH
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
This assignment intends to discuss the Australian organization namely ‘Sydney Sexual
Health Centers’ will be identified as a facility or organization and then their policies related to
plans and strategies of the international, national and state-based agendas will be aligned and
provided. Besides this the population of the service provided and their priorities for the
population will be discussed in this assignment. Finally, an evaluation of the service provision
for the chosen population and the evidence-based interventions will be provided and a set of
recommendations for the proper service delivery will also be highlighted in the assignment.
Culturally diverse sexual health services
The organization Sydney Sexual Health Centers is the primary organization providing
care for such major concerns as it is one of the oldest sexual and reproductive health related
organizations, in the complete New South Wales (NSW). This organization provides care in
every aspect such as providing testing, treatment and management for sexually transmitted
diseases such as Chlamydia, gonorrhea, warts, hepatitis B, syphilis, hepatitis C, Thrush, bacterial
vaginosis, urethritis, shigellosis, Molluscum, scabies and others (Sydney Sexual Health Centers
2018).
Quality Standard:
Sydney Sexual Health Centers aims to comply with several national and territorial
healthcare policies and regulation so that lawful and strategically compliance care could be
provided to the people requiring reproductive or sexual healthcare interventions (Sydney Sexual
Health Centers 2018). As per the details of its policy and regulation compliance provided in the
website, this service complies with two national policies such as Family Planning Alliance

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Australia and Multicultural Women’s Health Australia. Both of these national policies are
run by the central government of Australia. On one hand, Family Planning and Alliance
Australia is the national primal body for the sexual health and family planning organization,
whereas, on the other hand, MWHA is the national arm of the multicultural center for cultural
health in Australia, which is a policy for the immigrant women coming to Australia and to
improve their health and wellbeing (Culturally diverse sexual health services 2018).
The services and the priority population
As per the details available in the website of the organization in discussion, there is a
wide range of services that the facility provides to the population of Australia. The facility
provides online as well as offline service to people in Australia and targets the young people as it
has been seen that more than 50% of Australian younger generation is associated with internet
everyday and hence, they act to remove the emergence of these issues in such population is
Australia (Sydney Sexual Health Centers 2018). The organization provides facilities such as
multilingual counseling and educational session related facility, to the young people associated
with sex related work, MSM, or just curious about their sexual health for their benefit coming
from other countries and unable to receive the health service due to social stigma, discrimination
and other social issues.
Services for LGBTI community
Sexual health is one of the major concerns for the LGBTI community around the world
(Cahill & Makadon 2014, p. 40). The facilities offered at SSH help the community by providing
them with the opportunity to be able to share their thoughts regarding any physical mental and
social issue and for this they provide a 8 hour customer support system 7 days a week. This helps
the LGBTI people of Australia with a continuous support and they can use this portal as an

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educational portal and receive knowledge regarding sexual and reproductive diseases form the
facility (Friedman et al. 2014, p. 310).
Services for indigenous population
As per the data of Australian bureau of statistics, the rate of HIV in indigenous
population in Australia is 33% whereas the rate of hepatitis C in the same population is 25%
(Wilson et al. 2013, p. 23). This indicates the invasive rate of STIs within the indigenous
community and the organization strives to provide education and awareness so as to teach
preventive measures to combat STIs (Råssjö et al. 2013, p. 100).
People with disability and service for their sexual and reproductive health
For the people with disabilities, the organization provides guidelines and regulations so
that they can understand the provision government is using to prevent such diseases in their
community (Ahumuza et al. 2014, p. 59).
Evaluation of the specific provision for the priority population
The Australian government has determined Reproduction and Sexual health as one of the
major healthcare priorities with maternal healthcare in Australia (Singh, Darroch & Ashford
2014, p.122). As per the World Health Organization (2013) reproductive and sexual health is
determined by appropriate physical, mental and social wellbeing and it also helps the people
around the world to live a healthy sexual life, their stable and healthy reproductive ability and
then they decide as per their freedom. Chandra-Mouli et al. (2015, p. 123) mentions that sexual
and reproductive health is not related to the absence of disease however it also affected by the
socio-economic political and cultural aspect. Therefore, it is the role of these holistic approaches
to determine people and their reproductive and sexual health (Tornello, Riskind & Patterson

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2014, p. 169). Besides these, there are several factors such as educational, health promotional,
violence and prevention as well as mental health issues and hence to make people aware of the
reproductive and sexual health, the Australian government has included in the gender equality
related promotions so that the policies and regulations related to the reproductive and sexual
health could be provided to all the citizens (Denno, Hoopes. & Chandra-Mouli 2015, p. 45).
The primary and priority population chosen for this healthcare promotional and
intervention related organization is the lingual and culturally diverse young people who are
unaware of the services and system of the Australian government. They are unable to contact
these services because they are unable to reach out to healthcare facilities on account of social
and cultural barriers. Guy et al. (2012, p. 39) mentions in his research article that majority of the
aboriginal community are unaware of the sexual health and related information due to their
social and mental state and fear of losing their identity while mingling with the other
communities in Australia. The researchers included the study done in Australia Melbourne and
associated aboriginals in order to promote awareness and tried to find out the level of
information acquired by them in the context of sexually transmitted disease and in the process
collected data from 23 focus groups with 14 interviews with 142 aboriginal people (Guy et al.
2012, p. 38). It was found that the young people especially female aboriginals have to face
disadvantage related to sexual and reproductive health and due to which majority of the
population suffer from sexually transmitted diseases and mental health issues (Tucker, Bien &
Peeling 2013, p. 56). These services are important for the Australian population as the reach of
these services is up to 132,000 people in Australia every month and more than 1.58 million
people in Australian population (Sydney Sexual Health Centers 2018). Further, besides
providing care to these wide arrays of people, the organization also raises funds for different

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public healthcare programs around the country and also seeks help from the national facility so
that with the governmental aid such promotional and educational sessions could be conducted
(Sydney Sexual Health Centers 2018).
It was also seen in the research article by Jeffries et al. (2013, p. 100), that healthcare
professionals in such socially stigmatized condition are not able to understand the healthcare
provisions and hence, are unable to help with proper medication to prevent the occurrence of
sexually transmitted diseases due to discrimination, ignorance and societal stigma. As majority
of the gay sex worker population belongs to Thai and Chinese population and they are unable to
understand the language in which people are provided awareness details (Ahumuza et al. 2014,
p. 59). Hence, it is another reason due to which these populations are unable to take effective
measures to understand their responses to the emerging health condition. Besides, the social and
lingual difference creates a mental difference between the population and the government and
hence, they suffer from such health concern that affects their health as well. Therefore,
healthcare promotional campaigns should focus on providing a lingual compliance healthcare
intervention so that they can be provided with facilities provided by the government and their
health could also become a major concern for the government and healthcare facilities in the
country (Swain et al. 2013, p. 123).
The third evidence of evaluation is collected about the LGBTI community and people
with disability. These are communities as per Hay et al. (2012, p. 128) the society thinks least
about and discriminate due to their physical appearance and due to their sexual choices. This is
because there are very few healthcare and wellbeing enhancement organizations that target these
groups for their benefit and holistic wellbeing approach (World Health Organization 2016).
Therefore, it is the duty of the healthcare facilities to understand their needs and address them to

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make these communities safer and provide answer to their questions. Besides these, providing
detailed health analysis helps the communities to understand their physical and sexual limits and
they can fulfill their demands as per their limitation in life (Guy et al. 2012, p. 59). The primary
population of these services is young and discriminated people who are unable to share their
health concerns to any healthcare facility and are unaware of the maximum healthcare facilities
provided by the Australian government. To comply with the local as well as the state government
facilities, the service is associated with Directorate of Planning, Population Health and Equity
within South Eastern Sydney Local Health District as well as the service also complies with the
state and territorial health policies and regulations (Sydney Sexual Health Centers 2018). For
example, within New South Wales the policies are Family Planning NSW, Multicultural HIV
and Hepatitis Services and others are provided within the organization, by treating managing and
preventing such sexually transmitted disease. These policies are primarily for the upliftment and
security of people irrespective of their culture, nationality and lingual preference and working
culture and helps to provide them with their fundamental rights related too quality care.
Hence, it can be said that evaluation of the services offered would largely depend upon
the level of awareness and education within the identified target population group. It should be
noted here that there is a need to focus majorly on the awareness strategies and at the same time
also incorporate a culturally safe way to deliver the education. Health care professionals should
actively engage in planning campaigns so as to educate the indigenous people and the sex
workers about the importance of sexual health and hygiene and the preventive strategies that
could be undertaken so as to avoid risks associated with STIs.
The primary population of these services is young and discriminated people who are
unable to share their health concerns to any healthcare facility and are unaware of the maximum

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healthcare facilities provided by the Australian government. To comply with the local as well as
the state government facilities, the service is associated with Directorate of Planning, Population
Health and Equity within South Eastern Sydney Local Health District as well as the service also
complies with the state and territorial health policies and regulations (Sydney Sexual Health
Centers 2018). For example, within New South Wales the policies are Family Planning NSW,
Multicultural HIV and Hepatitis Services and others are provided within the organization, by
treating managing and preventing such sexually transmitted disease. These policies are primarily
for the upliftment and security of people irrespective of their culture, nationality and lingual
preference and working culture and helps to provide them with their fundamental rights related
too quality care. Hence, after evaluation of the organization that provide reproductive and sexual
healthcare aids to people and its compliance with the national and state policies, it was
determined that the facility complied with each of the territorial and national policies properly
and then helped the people so that they can lead a normal and healthy sexual life (Sydney Sexual
Health Centers 2018).
Recommendations
Despite the fact that the Sydney Sexual Health Centers provides detailed and complete
health, social and mental help to the population affecting from or at the verge of reproductive or
sexual health concerns, there are few recommendations, using which the acceptability and
efficacy of the program could be increased (Oster et al. 2016, p. 129). The recommendations are
as follows:
The first recommendations will be keeping the value of the complete program as per the
health of the entire Australian community. Health is a fundamental right of human being and
hence, it should not be compromised in any aspect (Gomez, Fuentes & Allina 2014, p. 26). It is

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the primary duty of the healthcare professionals working in that organization to comply the
United Nations health related principles and uphold the vision of the organization so that while
delivering services in the process, people can experience services related to its values and
ideologies (Chandra-Mouli et al. 2015, p. 129).
Secondly, the organization should maintain equity, access and development related
policies to provide care equally to every people in need. The organization should understand the
health gap present in the Australian healthcare system and should work in the way to close such
gaps by providing equal and concise opportunities to each individual in need (Igras et al. 2014, p.
56). It should be mentioned that inequalities in health care could be primary reason for the
decrease in the growth and development of the services for sexual healthcare in Australia.
Therefore, the society should change its mentality to provide equal opportunity to people of
Australia without any specifications (Green & Murphy 2014, p. 760).
In addition to this improving the services such as inclusion of tele-health services would
facilitate greater involvement of the priority population to avail health services. Also, digital
awareness programs and offering complimentary HIV testing can help in identifying the
infection at an initial stage and accordingly design an appropriate intervention. Further,
educating the priority population about protected sex and the use of barriers such as condoms
and dental dams can help in reducing the prevalence rate of STI to a considerable extent.
Conclusion
Sexual and reproductive health is one of the major concerns in healthcare facilities
around the world due to its speedy infective nature and inability of the people to prevent.
Australia also suffering from such disorders as majority of the LGBTI, indigenous, sex workers,

9REPRODUCTIVE AND SEXUAL HEALTH
as well as aboriginals who are unaware of the deteriorating nature of such healthcare diseases
with population having lingual and cultural incompetence and hence it is not possible for the
country to neglect the healthcare issues. However, the organization Sydney Sexual Health
Centers helps such people in providing healthcare intervention and therefore, it is the
organization that helps to provide culturally, lingual and policy related interventions to prevent
such disease in the communities. In this assignment, the details of the organization, the service
provided by the organization and then provided with the services provided to the priority
populations. After that with the help of latest research evidences, the interventions used by
healthcare organization was justified and then few recommendations were suggested so that
using the organization can increase its competency with the policy and regulation related aspects
of Australian healthcare.

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