Author: sophiebuijsen

As we head towards the end of 2021 we wanted to share some reflections on the Sex, Drugs and Scotland’s Health conference, and look ahead to plans for the Scottish Interdisciplinary Research in Sexual Health (IReSH) Network in 2022.

We recognise that 2021 has continued to be a challenging year across the sector, including for IReSH members and partners. While Scotland has moved into what has been described as a period of COVID recovery, and plans are set out to ‘reset and rebuild’ sexual health and blood borne virus services across the country, individuals, communities and organisations continue to navigate uncertainties that demand ongoing adaptations to ways of working and connecting with one another. Within the IReSH network we have continued to focus on our aim of bringing together people from academia, the third sector, health practitioners and communities to collaborate and coordinate research activities related to sexual health and blood-borne viruses. Much of the focus of IReSH members in 2021 has been on the Sex, Drugs and Scotland’s Health conference co-hosted by us and HIV Scotland.

Drawing on the aims of the IReSH network, the conference sought to bring together people across the sector to share research and practice, provide a space to listen and reflect on work done, and consider current and future challenges. The conference was originally scheduled to take place in Dundee in June 2020, but COVID-19 meant that the event had to be reimagined for a pandemic world. It was clear that the conference would need to bring the sector together virtually to share important learning, and lots of work focused on how to do this in a meaningful and inclusive way.  The ‘pause’ also provided a chance invite presentations on the rapid and far-reaching shifts in practice across NHS and community services, in response to the unfolding public health crisis, and their implications for sexual health and social justice beyond the pandemic.

We know that many of you reading this were able to join us for the conference, and we hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did. As much as we would have liked to attend everything, the sheer range of presentations and parallel sessions made that impossible (in a good way!). With that in mind we want to highlight that many of the recorded sessions are available through our conference co-hosts – HIV Scotland – YouTube Channel. This is an important IReSH and HIV Scotland resource, and we are delighted that it offers the opportunity to watch and learn from sessions you may have missed. We thought we would highlight just a few. The sessions included a diversity of topics and issues, including multiple presentations around sex and drugs (part 2), chemsex, innovations in HIV testing, Hep C eradication and prevention, the role of digital sexual health in delivering health services, sex and diversity in later life and learning from good practice in coproduction in peer support activities. There was a timely session focusing on developments in abortion care, considering what has changed in abortion care over time, and reflecting on future directions in Scotland. We had great presentations on diverse aspects of HIV including the experiences of people living with HIV, healthcare use and post-AIDS health promotion. We heard about the importance of public health and decriminalisation approach to sex work and drug use, learned about digital intimacies, smartphones and gay men’s sexual wellbeing, and focused on the value of partnership working in encouraging people to talk about sex! We hope that these resources may continue to spark conversations and interest in new collaborative research projects.

Another highlight of the conference were the roundtable discussions on trans health, racism and sexual health and wellbeing, the sexual health and wellbeing needs of migrant communities, asylum seekers and new entrants to Scotland, drug deaths in Scotland, chemsex, and intergenerational perspectives on consent. Roundtables offered a safe space to bring people together to engage in action oriented discussions, with a focus on advancing work in these areas – IReSH plans to take forward related workshops in 2022 and beyond.

The closing plenary brought together the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health & Sport, Maree Todd MSP with partners from IReSH and HIV Scotland to highlight successes in the sector wide response to the pandemic, as well as reflections on future challenges.

We know that we face continued challenges in sexual health and blood borne virus sector and in our efforts to bring about social justice, and we must ensure that we can learn from and listen to each other and work together to support sexual health, wellbeing and social justice in Scotland. We trust that this conference has made an important contribution to these collective efforts, and IReSH looks forward to supporting collaborative work to build on and extend keys issues over the coming year. Look out for events, discussion groups and networking events throughout the course of 2022!

Wishing you all happy time over the holidays.

October is an exciting month for those working across the sector in sexual and reproductive health and blood borne viruses as it marks the start of the Sex, Drugs & Scotland’s Health Virtual Conference 2021, which will take place between the 19th October and 21st October.

The conference is being co-hosted by us – the Scottish Interdisciplinary Research in Sexual Health (IReSH) Network – and HIV Scotland, and has been organised in collaboration with third sector, clinical and community partners, including Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland, Waverley Care, Scottish Drugs Forum, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health Scotland, NHS Lothian and the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The conference is happening at an important time as Scotland moves into what has been described as a period of COVID recovery, and plans are set out to ‘reset and rebuild’ sexual health and blood borne virus services across the country. We see the conference as a timely intervention that will support a cross-sector, interdisciplinary space to support the development of the renewed Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Framework. We also hope that this conference can help highlight and support the revisions to the Sexual Health Standards due to be issued by Health Improvement Scotland in early 2022. The IReSH network is keen to promote and advance an intersectional and holistic approach to revising these key policies and service standards, and facilitate discussion about how to advance this work with colleagues across the sector in the coming months. In particular, we see the conference as way to energise conversations around, and take forward, work that seeks to respond to structural barriers to sexual and reproductive justice in Scotland.

The Sex, Drugs & Scotland’s Health Conference offers the opportunity for researchers, health practitioners, third sector and community organisations to come together to explore challenges around sexual health and blood borne viruses in Scotland, and work that seeks to address these. It’s going to be an exciting and energising space in which to engage with those working in this diverse interdisciplinary area. The three-day event aims to:

• share research findings and examples of good practice
• facilitate discussion and engagement with key issues
• reflect on the developments made over the past 10 years, since the launch of the Scottish Government’s Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Framework
• identify and respond to current and future challenges
• develop and support collaborative partnerships to address contemporary health challenges

IReSH members have been working incredibly hard alongside the other conference organisers to put together an exciting programme that helps showcase the range and diversity of work that is happening across Scotland, and developing creative ways to engage virtually. The conference programme brings together a mix of presentations, panels and roundtable discussions that focus on research findings, reflections on service delivery, and facilitated discussion on critical issues in sexual and reproductive health and social justice. We encourage you to explore the programme to see the range and diversity of topics being addressed, including:

• Work with key communities, including people who use drugs, trans communities, gay, bisexual and men who have sex with men, African communities and sex workers
• Community outreach in sexual health and harm reduction
• Roundtable discussions on trans health, race, racism and prejudice in sexual health, migration and asylum, drug deaths, chemsex, and consent
• HIV prevention and testing, including PrEP, self-testing and service provision
• Abortion access and care
• Sexual health wellbeing and inequalities across multiple communities
• Hep C eradication and prevention

The work of members of the IReSH network is showcased across the conference, so look out for (among others!) presentations, panels and workshops with Ingrid Young (Conference Co-Chair), Sally Brown and Nicola Boydell (IReSH co-chairs), Julie Riddell, Ruth Lewis and Jamie Frankis. Look out too for a visual timeline of HIV in Scotland, drawing on material from the Lothian Health Services Archive and being developed by the Centre for Biomedicine Self and Society.

The conference also offers the opportunity to visit virtual exhibition stalls – including our IReSH exhibition stall – that highlights work being undertaken by community organisations and academic institutions across Scotland.  As part of our virtual exhibition space we are keen to hear your thoughts on activities and events that you would like IReSH to take forward in the coming months, and your views on what would make it easier for you to be involved in IReSH. Look out for links to our interactive ideas board to share your thoughts on this! In the meantime, if you haven’t already signed up, we would encourage you to join the network.

If you know of people that haven’t yet heard about the conference, it’s not too late to register for the conference so do pass on the link. We are so looking forward to spending time with you during the conference – see you there!

I know that I am not the only researcher whose project has been impacted by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. But, in an unexpected twist, my research might become ultimately more relevant in the long run. You see, I am a PhD student looking into how women talk about their abortion experiences, and interact with the experiences of others, in online spaces. One in three women will have an abortion in their lifetime, making it the most common gynaecological procedure worldwide. And yet, many women choose not to talk publicly about their abortion experiences because it remains a stigmatised procedure, criminalised in many countries, and highly regulated in others. Whilst choosing to remain silent about their abortion may protect them from the stigmatising reactions of others, this also prevents women from accessing social support, and further perpetuates the silence and stigma around abortion more generally.

Why research online abortion disclosures?

My Masters research (conducted in 2018) looked at who women chose to talk to about their abortion with friends, family, and conception partners. But several women described sharing their abortion experiences online. For some, they looked online because they didn’t know of anyone in their life who had previously had an abortion, and were looking for some direct experience to comfort them. For others, posting about aspects of their experience was their way of fighting abortion stigma and normalising the procedure. However, little research to date has focused on how women use the Internet to share their abortion experience, despite the existence of many designated online spaces in which to do so (shoutyourabortion.com, womenonweb.org, etc).

We know that individuals with other healthcare needs and conditions have utilised online chat rooms, support groups, and message boards, and benefit from disclosing their experiences through computer-mediated communication. Online, people can connect with others without geographical boundaries, when it is convenient for them, and from the comfort of their own home. The anonymity provided by Internet communication has been demonstrated to encourage those living with stigmatised conditions, such as HIV to speak with others in a similar situation. The support provided in such contexts is sometimes perceived to be more valuable than that provided by those without that shared experience. These online spaces may foster empowerment by offering experiential knowledge of, for example, what a medical procedure will be like, knowledge that is often not provided by healthcare professionals.

Abortion online and COVID-19

My study explores how and why women use these online spaces in the context of their abortion experience, in the hopes that with this knowledge, I can contribute to better support for women and reducing abortion stigma. But with current government guidelines about social distancing and the importance of staying at home, these online resources might become even more vital for women in the UK (and globally). We all have to be more creative with communicating with those outside our household at the minute. But there is a particular question around how women can access abortion services safely, without exposing them to unnecessary risk by requiring them leaving their homes during this pandemic (for further information regarding this topic read Carrie Purcell and Nicola Boydell’s blog post here)

This unprecedented time could be a chance to utilise existing online resources for women during and after their abortion. For instance, womenonweb.org provides abortion pills and telemedicine for women where abortion is illegal. They have demonstrated the safety and utility of women accessing abortion services online. Initially the UK governments refused to embrace this option, however, they have since changed their guidance. Women in Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (with the help of British Pregnancy Advisory Service) can now have the consultation using telephone or video calls, and can take both early medical abortion medications (mifepristone and misoprostol) at home during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

With these movements towards telemedicine abortion care, and in this time of heightened computer-mediated communication and uncertainty, it is crucial to understand how and why women are using online spaces to post about their abortions and interact with other women’s stories. Are they receiving the healthcare and social support they need? Are they experiencing abortion stigma either on or offline? This study seeks to answers these questions by interviewing women and speaking to them about their personal experiences with talking and reading about abortion online.

Want to contribute your story/experience?

I have recently requested an amendment to my study’s ethical approval, adapting my research methodology to allow for interviews via Zoom or telephone. I want to hear from women about why they have used online resources and spaces before, during, and after their abortion. If you would like to participate in this study or just find out more,
Check out my study’s Facebook page
Please follow me on Twitter for more updates: @Rwilsonlowe