Page 1664 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 15 May 2019
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(c) reproductive and sexual health clinical care and counselling, including STI testing and treatment, and sexual health and relationships education provided by Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT; and
(d) Hepatitis ACT which provides prevention, health promotion, and peer education programs, and treatment support for people affected by hepatitis;
(6) encourages the ACT Government to work with stakeholder groups and sector leaders to establish a framework for a collaborative community-based sexual health outreach model which:
(a) aims to further increase the sector’s collective impact; and
(b) could include an annual Sexual Health Week to increase rates of awareness and highlight the ongoing availability of location-based and outreach services; and
(7) requests the ACT Government to report back on this work to the Assembly in March 2020.
Let’s talk about sex or, more specifically, sexual health, a vital component of our everyday health and wellbeing. It is something that, as policymakers and as community leaders, I do not think we speak about enough, particularly in this place. That is funny because sexual health encompasses so many interrelated areas: reproductive health, relationships, education, safety and prevention, infections and bloodborne viruses—and the testing and treatment of those—and support offered around that testing and treatment.
But sex and bodies remain confronting, challenging and even taboo subjects in some parts of our community, including some parts of the healthcare and social support system. There should be nothing taboo about being healthy and nothing taboo about being sexually healthy. It is something we should celebrate, support and promote as a community, from the way we speak about it, to the way we normalise it, to the policy decisions we make and implement. I am proud to speak candidly about sexual health in this chamber today.
Madam Speaker, the impetus for me to speak about sexual health today is some startling statistics. At a time when you would think we should be a pretty enlightened community when it comes to sexual health, we are instead dealing with the prevalence, and in some cases the rise, of rates of notifications of sexually transmitted infections and bloodborne viruses across Australia, and the ACT is not immune.
These infections and viruses are serious. The longer diagnosis and treatment take, the greater the issue. Medication effectiveness can be reduced and lasting or permanent damage can be done to sex and other organs. Rising STI notification rates and rising BBV rates are both a troubling sign and a good sign. When they result from increased testing, we may be detecting infections that were already in the community but unknown, which can be treated and then further prevention work can be undertaken.
However, evidence is emerging in some areas that rates are rising above testing rates. Chlamydia remains one of the most common infectious diseases in Canberra. Notifications have steadily increased since 2007 with 1,576 cases reported last year
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