Nice Blog on young people and sexual health issues

http://projectunspoken.tumblr.com/

Here are some of the pictures from their blog. Give them a visit.

Teens wary of Internet for sexual health information

Have a read of this article from the Guttmacher Institute

TEENS WARY OF INTERNET FOR SEXUAL HEALTH INFORMATION

Exploratory Study Shows Teens More Likely to Turn to Family Members, School or Medical Professionals

Although most teens use the Internet daily, few consider it a main source of information about contraception or abstinence, according to a new qualitative study by Rachel K. Jones of the Guttmacher Institute and Ann E. Biddlecom of the United Nations Population Division. Additionally, in in-depth interviews at three public high schools in New York and Indiana, only a minority of the 58 study participants reported that they got any contraceptive or abstinence information online; those who accessed this information typically did so in response to a specific event (such as a school assignment) or, less commonly, to find the answer to a personal question.

Most of the teens interviewed were wary of sexual health information on the Internet. The teens indicated a distrust of online information because it is often user-generated and could therefore be incorrect. They also noted that they would probably have to sort through an abundance of sexually explicit material to find the factual information they were looking for. Teens were most likely to trust family members (usually parents) for sexual health information; their next most trusted sources were educators, medical professionals and friends.

There is great potential for the Internet to link more teens to accurate and comprehensive sexual health information and for increasing their trust in the information they get from this source. While a number of Web sites provide accurate sexual health information in a teen-friendly manner, one cannot assume that teens will find or seek out these sources on their own. Instead, the authors recommend that groups working to improve teens’ access to accurate sexual health information capitalize on their trust in family members and schools to guide them to those sites.

“Is the Internet Filling the Sexual Health Information Gap for Teens? An Exploratory Study” by Rachel K. Jones et al., of the Guttmacher Institute, is currently available online and will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Health Communications.

SHineSA comes to Drug Action Week

Drug Action week is upon us and ShineSA southern team has responded to a request from the Southern Fleureau Drug Action Network to attend a series of expos organised in schools for this event.

If you would like to find out more contact emily on:

sciyouth@iinet.net.au

STI Myths ( they say STD)

Great little youtube video that dispels some myths around STIs. Well worth a watch. Thanks to SEXETC for this..

There is no privileged access to truth????

Yet again some people try to stop our young people getting the information essential for them to survive and make sense of the world we live in. I got the following post from Sexetc. A website for sex education by teens and for teens. You can have a look at thier website here.

Book Banned From New Jersey High School Library

Eighteen people recently complained about three books in a New Jersey high school library. What were they complaining about? How the books dealt with teen sexuality.

The books are Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology, Love and Sex: 10 Stories of Truth and The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing About Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities.

Go here to read more

Parents don't think thier kids are having sex

Many parents don't think their kids are interested in sex, but believe that everyone else's kids are, a new study reveals.

"Parents I interviewed had a very hard time thinking about their own teen children as sexually desiring subjects," said study researcher Sinikka Elliott, an assistant professor of sociology at North Carolina State University. "At the same time, parents view their teens' peers as highly sexual, even sexually predatory." Parents consistently characterized their children as young, immature and naïve.

Go here to read more

Writing Themselves in Number 3 - WTi3

For those of you who don't know, the Writing Themselves in Reports are THE definitive source of information regarding the sexual health and wellbeing of young same sex attracted people in Australia. The first report was released in 1998, the second in 2005 and NOW its time to collect information for the 3rd report. YES Help young same sex attracted young people have a say. This information is IMPORTANT. The first two writing themselves in reports influenced (on a grand scale) policy and action Nationwide.

Do you work with same-sex attracted kids aged 14-21 in Australia?
If you do please encourage them to write themselves into Australian history by filling out the third national Australian survey on same sex attracted youth at www.wti3.org.au
This is THE survey that makes a REAL difference to policies and services; support it. The survey is open NOW and closes in April 2010.

New Youth Card

This is SHineSA new youth card with ALL the info a person needs to get in touch with shine.

If you want to order some give SHineSA a call on 08 8300 5300

OR email on info@shinesa.org.au OR just go to the website here and order via the online form. It's easy.

Lets get this information OUT THERE

HIV and young Australians

Loves Me, Loves me Not

I just watched a brilliant dvd ( that SHine has in our library) it is called Loves Me, Loves Me Not.

This is an Australian documentary of a young girl (Angela Barker) who was a victim of relationship violence. In the documentary her friends, parents, neighbours and friends of the perpertrator are interviewed. Angela herself is unable to speak because of the injuries she suffered.

This would be great to use as preventative stuff with young women and men. BUT it is heart wrenching and brings tears to my eyes.

Scenario

In the SE&X course that I teach we often have online forum questions that we ask people to respond to: One such question goes like this.

One of your clients comes to see you, really excited as she now has somewhere to live. She has been without a place for several months. The house is owned by a young man who is living with 2 other young men. One of the conditions for her to move in is that she has sex with each of the men once a week. The young woman says she is fine with this.
What are you thinking?
What are you feeling?
What will you do?

Below is one of the responses from a person that is doing the course: I think this response is great and wanted to share it with you.

"What am I thinking?I would be concerned for her physical and psychological safety. I would be wondering if she has an abuse history. At the same time, being transient for a lengthy time is also risky and 'sex for favours' may not be overtly stated as an 'agreement' but may be the unspoken reality for young people-young women and men. "Survival creates strange bedfellows." I would be surprised if the young woman hadn't either been involved with this or been exposed to this, as she's 'fine with this'. I'd suspect that she's not completely fine with it but that its better than the alternatives. I would go through the various accomm options but realistically they are limited especially for those over 18. Under 18 the options are better but still restricted and there are waiting times. I would not be thinking of referring this young person for counselling for exploration of issues at this time. I would be mainly concerned about her immediate and longer term safety so I would be considering safe sex, (access to contraception & condoms), linking her with a youth health service, linking her with support. I think that I would be trying to work out a safety plan with the young person in the event that the situation becomes 'dangerous' (at least from her perspective) e.g making sure the y/p has emergency no.s for crisis support. I would want to try and remain in a support role for the y/p and would suggest counselling at a later stage. I find suggesting counselling too soon in the picture can result in it being rejected outright. While later its more likely to be considered. I think this is because in the early stage y/p sense they're being judged. "Counselling is for sick people I just need a place to live. I'm only doing this so I have a place. If you realised just how tough it is to survive you'd know why this is an ok option for me, its better than the streets. This isn't about me its about my situation." I would be respecting of the Y/p choices but would point out that the young men are using their power as 'home ful' to extort from the 'homeless'. I would try to link the y/p into services and would discuss mandatory notification requirements if the y/p was under age.What am I feeling?I'd be feeling sad and angry about the lack of accomm options available. Frustrated that I couldn't do more. I would be feeling extremely irate if the y/p was under age as the likelihood of FSA intervening is small due to resource issues and that is so wrong! Aust is signatory to the United Nations Rights Of the Child and yet so often young people are neglected and abandoned by the very services designed to assist them. I would be feeling good that the y/p person felt that she could talk to me as she hasn't got much support. I would be hoping that the young person felt that she could trust me to talk to again. It is always better to feel that only one person cares than to feel no-one does."

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How about you - what would you do???????

ETHICS

Hello everyone: Its been a long time since I posted and I apologise:

However I have been doing some things that I would like to blog about.

I attended the 'Its Time: Creating a future free from violence - men's responsibilities' forum last Friday the 22nd August. One thing that really struck me was a key note speaker who spoke about the Ethics in delivering services - not in terms of 'what are my ethics?' but in terms of 'what are the ethics of this person that they are showing them to society in this particular way?' For instance: Is a man being violent because he has an ethic of 'an eye for an eye' or because he has an ethic that 'power shouldn't be taken from people therefore I will take it back".


I might not be very clear to you about this but what it gave me was a way to find 'goodness' to work on with people BEFORE I decide on thier fate. Maybe we DO have similar ethics but dont display them in the same way. Maybe discovering a persons ethics (not thier behaviour) is a way to start sometimes.


What got me started on ETHICS was some research into ETHICS for a lecture that I had to deliver: The main thing that I found out for myself was: ( and this can be described by some formal terminology -go here at the Galilean Library - it is a really easy to read intro to ethics)

The main thing I have been rethinking though is this:
Metaethics: where do my ethical notions come from and what they mean? What do I think is good?
Normative ethics: What principles tell me my moral behaviour —and what does not.
Applied ethics: How do I apply these in a dilemma of moral dimension.

Believe it or not these simple questions along with attending the forum have got me rethinking many things.

If you want to hear a cool podcast on 'Is killing wrong" ( go here - to the BBC Open U ethics bites podcast.

Also if you want to be part of discussing ethical dilemmas in youth work go here to the Youth Action and Policy NSW website - youth work ethics blog. IT IS GREAT

Criminal Law Consolidation (Rape and Sexual Offences) Amendment Bill 2008

There have been some amendments to the above act that are very interesting. Please go here to have a look.

As an example here is how the amendment describes consent:
Consent to sexual activity
(1) In this section—
sexual activity includes sexual intercourse.
(2) For the purposes of this Division, a person consents to sexual activity if the person freely and voluntarily agrees to the sexual activity.
(3) Without limiting subsection (2), a person is taken not to freely and voluntarily agree to sexual activity if—
(a) the person agrees because of—
(i) the application of force or an express or implied threat of the application of force or a fear of the application of force to the person or to some other person; or
(ii) an express or implied threat to degrade, humiliate, disgrace or harass the person or some other person; or
(b) the person is unlawfully detained at the time of the activity; or
(c) the activity occurs while the person is asleep or unconscious; or
(d) the activity occurs while the person is intoxicated (whether by alcohol or any other substance or combination of substances) to the point of being incapable of freely and voluntarily agreeing to the activity; or
(e) the activity occurs while the person is affected by a physical, mental or intellectual condition or impairment such that the person is incapable of freely and voluntarily agreeing; or
(f) the person is unable to understand the nature of the activity; or
(g) the person agrees to engage in the activity with a person under a mistaken belief as to the identity of that person; or
(h) the person is mistaken about the nature of the activity.

In addition there is description of ' reckless indifference
rape, compelled sexual manipulation.

If you have trouble understanding this format - Please get back to me and I will try and get a 'plain english' version that is easy to follow.

safety PLEASURE respect forum

On Tuesday night the 19th of Febuary the forum on Safety Pleasure Respect

exploring the concept of pleasure in sex education, was held.



We had 34 people in attendance coming from a variey of work and non work situations. There were DRs, nurses,youth workers, community health workers, teachers, peer educators, trainers and more.

The forum started with a brief 'sex education' video clip taken from Monty Pythons, "The Meaning of Life" (chapter 5 or 6)

From here there was a panel of 4 young people answering pre set questions about sex and pleasure - giving the room a perspective about sexual health and relationships education that some had perhaps not heard before. The panel were a hilite of the forum, speaking with a frankness and honesty that is so often lacking in the discourse of pleasure. (Below are the questions asked of the panel)


Panel questions - Scenario

“ You have been asked to be on a triple J radio show discussing the merits of education about pleasure/sex in sex education programs – Triple J has just taken up some research that had been tabled in Parliament citing that ‘ sex education in this country is failing because we are missing a discourse on pleasure and young people want a discourse on pleasure in their sex education’

Question 1: Why do most programs encourage young people to have LESS sex and focus on the risks and harm minimisation when research indicates an active sex life is important for one's sense of well-being ?


Question 2: “The reproductive focus of sex education and its silence on sexual pleasure, female desire, and relationships does little to communicate effective strategies for managing sexual safety.”
How would you define pleasure and what do YOU think is the relationship between pleasure and sexual behaviour?


Question 3: Do you think that including education for pleasure (for young people) could have a role in creating safer and healthier environments for women, where violence is tolerated less? Why/why not?


Question 4: Are you aware of myths about orgasms and sex? If so what are some of these AND how could you overcome these myths?


Question 5: “The orgasm gap” 7% of men ages 18 – 29 do not achieve orgasm versus 26% of women ages 18 to 29 and 79% of boys have an orgasm with first intercourse compared to 7% of girls.
Why do you think it is ? AND Is there anything that might be done to change this discrepancy?


Question 6: Just over a quarter (25.9%) of all sexually active students report that they have had unwanted sex at some time in their lives.
In your opinion is sex ONLY about pleasure if not what else is it about? Do you think education about pleasure would make a difference to these statistics?


Question 7: Unsafe sex is the second most important risk factor for disability and death in the world’s poorest communities and the ninth most important in developed countries. Every year, more than 120 million couples have an unmet need for contraception, 80 million women have unintended pregnancies (45 million of which end in abortion), more than half a million women die from complications associated with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, and 340 million people acquire new gonorrhoea, syphilis, chlamydia, or trichomonas infections.
How could you discuss sexual intercourse in a way that would make people feel less uncomfortable? What could you tell people about sexual intercourse that might make a change to the figures quoted before?


Question 8: Overall 80% of same sex attracted young people found sex education at school to be useless or fairly useless. In other research young people say sex education is too little, too late and too biological.
What do you think effective sexuality education might look like?






After the panel (and after some giggles/laughs/food and a break) the participants were asked to do some groupwork and answer some questions themselves.


Below are the outcomes of group exercise that asked participants to answer three questions.

1. What does sexual pleasure mean?


2. How would you justify including this in a program?


3. What would pleasure in a sexuality education program look like.

COLLATED GROUPWORK RESPONSES

What does sexual pleasure mean?

Different things to different people makes you feel good/vibrant/tingle
Choice good about yourself
Orgasm anticipation
An experience you want to repeat strengthening an emotional bond
Individual feeling good – safe comfortable
Intimacy close/intimate/aroused
Without fear not necessarily having intercourse
More than just a pleasurable act not necessarily physical/could be emotional
The setting very individual and different at different times
Contains respect and trust experimentation
Enjoyable release
Allows you to share and trust alone or with others
Tantric stimulation
Melding connectedness
Touch/erotic desire
Arousal fun
Comfortable sharing
Communication giving / receiving


How would you justify including this in a program?

· How can you not?
· Natural/primal
· Empowering – knowing it’s okay to feel pleasure
· Consequences of leaving it out are endless ( low expectations/guilt/bad relationships
· Knowing- expectations-what your bottom line is
· Respect for self and others
· A promotion of safety/individuality
· If you don’t link sex with pleasure it becomes more biological/clinical therefore not an individual experience
· Don’t teach it as sex education/teach it as sexual health and relationships
· A good title can soften/alter/widen/open perceptions about talking about it
· Sexual safety and boundaries
· Children /teens are doing it, we can’t shut our eyes to it
· We need to educate students
· Knowing yourself and what you like helps you make clearer choices for yourself
· If sexual pleasure is the agenda, individuals make better choices which lead to less regret/trauma/negative consequences
· Reducing risks
· Harm minimisation
· Better health outcomes
· If you put sex and pleasure together you put more on the menu
· Teaching young people to know and respect self makes better choices for individuals/better outcomes for all


What would pleasure in a sexuality education curriculum look like?

· Accepting that pleasure for one may not translate to another
· Communication needed for individual pleasure ( with self or partner)
· Achieving mutual goals
· Discuss the non pleasurable aspects of sex – abortion
· Not specific as its all individual – but to say there is a reasonable expectation that there will be pleasure
· From an early age – straight away
· Using all your senses – ‘pleasure principle’
· Intimacy stuff
· Respect for yourself and others

OUTCOME

Of course these questions (and other unplanned ones) led to lots of discussion. What we decided it that: THIS IS JUST A BEGINNING. If we are going to identify if and how pleasure should be included in sexual health and relationships education then we need lots more discussion. Sooooo in response I (Lud Allen) will set up a website forum where we can continue to interact and discuss this issue/trade information and research findings/ and support each other in this journey.

If you would like to be part of this discussion then send me an email (or leave a comment on this blog with your email) and I will add you to this discussion list and send you a message when the forum is set up.

Christmas is coming!

BOOKS OF INTEREST


Two books that you may find interesting which you can get through the SHineSA library are the 'Quartely essay' issue 22 2006 - Voting for Jesus, Christianity and Politics in Australia and "The Male in the Head" young people, heterosexuality and power.




The first of these: 'Quarterly Essay" says this on the back cover.
" From the Hillsong Church to the Family First party, Australia appears to be experiencing an evangelical revival. In the second 'Quarterly Essay' for 2006, Amanda Lohery investigates that revival - its shape and scope, and what it means for the mainsttream churches and the nations politics. She talks to young believers and analyses the machinations of the Christian Right. She discusses with humour and insight, the appeal of the megachurch, the changing image of jesus and the political theories of Geaorge Pell and Peter Jensen

Voting for Jesus is also an essay about the use and abuse of religion in party politics."

I found this book to be easy reading entertaining and definately thought provoking. If you want to know what young believers think about, abortion, same sex attractedness and other issues this is definately worth a read.


The other book 'The Male in the Head' by Janet Holland, Caroline Ramazanoglu, Sue Sharpe and Rachel Thomson covers a discussion about social construction of sexuality. In particular sex, gender and power - and the gendering of sexual knowledge and "the collusion of young women with thier sexual partners in a reproduction of multilayered male power."

This is a fantastic book for anyone interested in gender, power and the roles our young people adopt.



PODCASTS

In addition you may wish to hear what young people have to say about sexuality, sexual health issues and thier thoughts re life. If so go to the SHineSA youth podcast and listen to them yourself through your windows media player. There are plenty of other topics to hear in the podcast as well.
Listen here for an example

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SE&X COURSE

AND - DONT FORGET The 2007 SE&X courses are taking bookings now. Below are 2 SE&Xers from 2006. One of the podcast recordings has them talking about their thoughts re the course.

2006 participants