{"id":1753,"date":"2011-12-07T12:56:32","date_gmt":"2011-12-07T20:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=1753"},"modified":"2012-01-10T10:43:45","modified_gmt":"2012-01-10T18:43:45","slug":"future-of-sexual-health-clinic-remains-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2011\/12\/07\/future-of-sexual-health-clinic-remains-uncertain\/","title":{"rendered":"Future of sexual health clinic remains uncertain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sexual health clinic at Camosun\u2019s Lansdowne campus offers a place for students to go and, well, get their junk checked out. But funding for the clinic is never guaranteed, leaving it in a constant state of flux.<\/p>\n

The Camosun clinic, located on the top floor of the Richmond House and running 1:30-4:30 pm Thursdays, is run by the Island Sexual Health Society, a non-profit organization, and is partially funded by the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS).<\/p>\n

The clinic\u2019s head nurse, Charlotte Brown, finds the uncertain state of the clinic troubling.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun sexual health clinic medical office assistant Kim Harding (Photo by Ali Hackett\/Nexus).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe college renews the contract every year with us, so we run it October to April one day a week and they review that in the summer after we\u2019ve closed,\u201d says Brown. \u201cWhat we do every year is we pack up in April, because we never know if the clinic\u2019s going to be funded the following year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The college provides the facilities and the CCSS budgets a maximum of $10,000 to cover wage costs incurred by the clinic.<\/p>\n

Brown and Kim Harding, the medical office assistant, staff the facility, which offers vital services to students, such as testing for sexually transmitted infections and reasonably priced birth control, all within walking distance of classes.<\/p>\n

This accessibility makes it more likely for students to address their sexual health concerns, but where would students go if the funding ceased and there wasn\u2019t a Camosun clinic?<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe to walk-in clinics, but I\u2019m sure a lot of people wouldn\u2019t bother if there wasn\u2019t something provided by the school,\u201d says Rachel Kerr, a university transfer student at Camosun.<\/p>\n

Brown believes that a closure of the on-campus sexual health clinic could result in less students using the service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that with a lot of sexual health for younger people that accessing services without having to travel a great distance is really important and making appointments and having to get somewhere is often quite tricky,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The clinic offers quick, free appointments for students, and most are only 15 minutes long so they won\u2019t cut into studying time.<\/p>\n

Many students, including some from UVic, take advantage of the services offered at Camosun, according to Brown.<\/p>\n

Each weekly clinic sees six to 10 clients and roughly 70 percent of those who have used the clinic since September are students at Camosun.<\/p>\n

The clinic is open to non-students as well, but Brown states that more students, especially men, should head to the clinic. Currently, roughly five percent of the clinic\u2019s clients are male.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do see the guys, but I don\u2019t see them enough,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

For now, the status of the Lansdowne clinic is that it will remain open until April 2012, providing cost-effective sexual health for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how you work, in a non-profit organization, anyway,\u201d says Brown, \u201cbecause we\u2019re not there to make money; we\u2019re there to cover our costs and provide a service for the clients.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sexual health clinic at Camosun\u2019s Lansdowne campus offers a place for students to go and, well, get their junk checked out. But funding for the clinic is never guaranteed, leaving it in a constant state of flux. The Camosun clinic, located on the top floor of the Richmond House and running 1:30-4:30 pm Thursdays, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-december-7-2011"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1753"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1862,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions\/1862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}