Posters

P2 Educators in the front line- handling individual disclosure

Selina Utting
Children by Choice

Being the person who delivers sexual and reproductive health education attracts many disclosures – including Children by Choice’s most common disclosure…”I’m pregnant”. This workshop will discuss issues around being the person on the end of disclosure and discussing unplanned pregnancy options in a professional and impartial manner. It will focus on counselling micro-skills necessary to remain a focused professional in this setting, including understanding your own values and their interaction with this topic, using neutral and impartial language, listening skills and empowering language, use of referrals, and self-care.

It is important that front-line educators can negotiate through this complex interaction, and keep their professional distance intact. An educator should not feel pressure to be a friend, parent, rescuer or counsellor. This workshop will provide skill development and detailed information for education professionals in the front line of disclosure. The skills covered will also be applicable to other forms of disclosure.

P3 Programming and Productive Pedagogies in HRE

Megan Murr
Chancellor State College
Jo Stewart
Family Planning Queensland

This presentation examines the past taboos and future needs with sexuality education through past studies undertaken and reported and innovative pedagogies. The youths of our future require education to make well informed decisions about their own actions and behaviours.

The presentation will demonstrate how this school created their program under the expert guidance of Family Planning ( Sunshine Coast ) and imbedded this program within the curriculum as a unit in the Health and Wellbeing program. The program, structured from the High Talk Resource, delivered content in an innovative way that allowed classroom teachers as well as PE specialists to feel comfortable and supported.

By examining some of the program innovations, productive pedagogies , timetabling and student assessments, this presentation is designed to inspire educators who are reluctant in designing and implementing their own program and share what has proven to be a well respected program at Chancellor. Included is a testimonial from a 23 year old male exchange teacher from New York who was very reluctant to take on this subject buy now recognises the need and his ability to teach this subject.

This presentation will also display assessment pieces and options for resources to include in any sexuality program.

The PowerPoint used in the presentation is available and will be printed out for notes if necessary.

P4 Evaluation of Everyone has got a bottom: Early Childhood Prevention of Sexual Abuse Resource

Dr Jennifer Sanderso
Griffith University : Centre for
Holly Brennan
Family Planning Queensland

This poster presents the findings of an evaluation of the book, Everyone’s got a bottom published by Family Planning Queensland . The book has been designed to assist parents, carers and teachers to help young children develop effective personal safety skills and increase communication about sexuality. The evaluation surveyed a random sample of purchasers of the book about their use, and the perceived effectiveness of the book in educating children aged 3 – 8 years about child safety skills and sexuality.

The research was conducted by Griffith University , Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance: Violence Research Program: Brisbane , Australia . One thousand purchasers of the book were randomly selected and surveyed during May 2008. 280 surveys were returned. The paper will present the analyses of participants responses to the survey including:

• Reasons respondents had not used the book
• Changes in behaviour since using the book
• Helpfulness as an early childhood educational tool.

The evaluation showed that there were clear benefits in using the book to provide prevention education for purchasers’, children (aged 3 – 8 years) and other adults who were included in communication about the book (including other carers, child care services and schools)

P5 Consulting with young people about sexual health

Angela Wunsch and Yvonne Black
Family Planning Queensland

Goal

To improve sexual health services for young people by improving the content of training for the youth and sexual health sector workforces.

Objective

To develop a better awareness of the sexual and reproductive health needs of young people in Queensland by incorporating current information, and the importance of engaging with young people, into professional training delivered by FPQ.

Method

200 young people (110 male, 90 female) aged between 15 and 20 years from Central

Queensland , Ipswich and Logan were consulted through informal focus groups regarding their opinions on youth friendly sexual health services, and their knowledge about sexual health.

Focus group questions were developed through input from local service providers, the funding body and several young people. Professional training events were held in all three locations to inform services of FPQ's consultation process and results.

This poster presentation will discuss some of the conclusions from this project.

P6 What has sex got to do with it? Reconsidering vulnerability in young people based on findings of a retrospective chart audit of under 16 year olds attending Family Planning clinics in Queensland

Margot Kingston and Dr Caroline Harvey

Family Planning Queensland

Since 2005, in Queensland , legislative and policy changes have placed greater emphasis on health care provider’s responsibilities in assessing vulnerable young people at risk of neglect and abuse. Striking a balance between these obligations and the need to provide confidential sexual health services for young people has raised ethical and medico-legal questions for the staff involved in their care.

A retrospective chart audit of all under 16s attending FPQ clinics during 2007 was conducted to:

• Review attendance patterns & characteristics of young people under 16 attending FPQ clinics

• To evaluate quality of assessment of young people following implementation to legislative and policy changes

• To identify how often issues of concern are identified and frequency of notification to Department of Child Safety and other welfare services

Altogether, 311 under 16 year olds attended during the study period: 246 of these young people were sexually active.

The results of the audit has provided greater clarity for staff at FPQ about the ‘risk of harm’ decision making process that needs to be applied when working with early adolescents who are sexually active. The framework that has been developed to assist this process places an equal emphasis on supporting healthy sexuality as much as it does in identifying those vulnerable young people needing support beyond the capacity of family planning or sexual health agencies.