On Thursday 25th and Friday 26th June 2015, in conjunction with Coast City Country GP Training, SHFPACT presented the first two days of the FPAA Certificate in Reproductive and Sexual Health for Doctors.
This 2-day sexual health workshop is compulsory for GP registrars, and this year we had 40 participants attend, some of whom will go on to complete the full 6 day Theory and Examination components of the certificate. Day One covered contraception including Short Acting Hormonal Contraception, Barrier Methods, Fertility Awareness, Female Sterilisation, Vasectomy and Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC).
This year, as an added session, SHFPACT was able to provide an evening Face to Face Implanon Insertion training session to 22 participants of the workshop.
Day Two provided information on STIs, Management of Breast Lumps, Cervical Screening and Menopause.
Many thanks to Dr David Voon, Dr Bronwyn Devine, Dr Alex Tyson and Dr Anne Bicknell as our external presenters, as well as to SHFPACT doctors Jenny Leung, Clare Holberton, Tracey Baker and Rosa O’Kane for their tireless efforts in preparation and delivery.
The feedback from the participants was excellent, and there have been many requests from participants to register for the remainder of the course.
The course continues in October 2015 with four further days of theory sessions and examination.
Helping transgender people keep jobs will be a top priority for Victoria's first gender and sexuality commissioner.
The state government has announced Rowena Allen's appointment to "champion the rights" of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Victorians.
Only 5 per cent of transgender people kept their jobs after changing gender, Ms Allen said. "I'm looking forward to increasing that number," she said, adding that she planned to work with company boards to create workplace policies and cultures to help transgender people retain their jobs.
Ms Allen said she expected the profile of her new position would encourage more people to come forward with complaints of discrimination, and that she would work with the Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission when complaints were made.
It was not your average ask. They'd been together for years, but this came as a shocking surprise. They had a rocking sex life, built on mutual trust, affection and respect for one another, and they'd explored all manner of things together. But during the deep recesses of one wild night, she asked him to do something to her that sent shivers down his spine in the worst kind of way. With a few simple words, she turned him off almost instantly, and broke a dream that had been so beautiful. While she was lying naked, beneath him, his confident, loving, smart, thirty-something, long-term partner asked him, "rape me?"
"I recoiled in what I guess was horror," he wrote, in an email asking me to write to readers for answers.
"How could I possibly 'rape' the woman I loved?"
He describes her reaction to his inaction. She tried to smooth it over with hurried 'don't worry about it darling' dismissals. She tried to bring him back to the wonderful world they'd been playing in moments before. "Forget I said it – it doesn't matter, come here… kiss me…"
But he couldn't. He couldn't kiss the woman he loved because he felt she had asked him to hurt her in the deepest possible way. And though he didn't – and wouldn't – do it, he felt that she, at some level, thought he would. And that would mean he was a monster.
Did she really think he was a monster?
"As soon as you say 'rape', you're talking about something altogether different to love and sex. You're talking about something that is a crime. It is a most vile act. It's an abuse. It's offensive, and it is not something you would do to anyone, let alone someone you cared for more than anyone. I couldn't understand why she wanted me to do that, and I couldn't do the next thing she asked: Forget it."
SHFPACT was invited to participate in the first Canberra Feel the Vibe Disability and Sexuality Forum and Expo on the 12th and 13th of June. A first-of-its-kind sexuality and disability expo and forum was held for adults with physical disabilities, their families, carers, advocates and disability support workers. The Feel the Vibe Forum and Expo aimed to lift the lid on sexuality and disability, two often taboo topics, by giving people with disabilities, their supporters and advocates more information about choices in regards to sexuality and disability. In addition and most importantly giving people with disabilities a voice and control over their lives as sexual beings.
Two staff members were invited to speak at the forum, Lisa Grant (Director Client Services) and Erin Smith (Professional and Community Education Officer). Lisa spoke on the importance of educating on the topics of sex, relationships, and parenting so we can properly communicate and ensure people with disability understand these human experiences. Erin discussed the intersection of disability and sexuality from within a human rights framework. Erin spoke at length about the ‘dignity of risk’; we have a right to make decision, take risks, learn from them and then try again. People with disabilities embarking on relationships should have the same dignity of risk as all other people.
At the Saturday evening expo health promotion staff, Riddhi Blackley and Amy Duncan, shared their knowledge with adults with physical disabilities, their families, carers, advocates and disability support workers about sexual health and answered questions. The SHFPACT info stand had games, hands-on displays, health promotion materials and give-aways.
There was condom experiments, edible vulva sweet treats, games and any number of cheeky hands-on educational activities at the SHFPACT info booth at Questicon’s ‘XXX Adults only Science Night’. Without a doubt ‘making your own vulva biscuit’ was a hugely popular with visitors. SHPFACT staff helped visitors create over 1000 vulva biscuits out of milk arrowroot bickies, lollies, sprinkles, coconut and mountains of icing . The sweet sticky treats were not only fun to create but also encouraged participants to consider healthy natural genital diversity.
Community educator Erin Smith continued with the theme of healthy genital diversity, in her presentation “Be a Designer Vagina Decliner: the low down on cosmetic female genital surgery”. Presenting to a packed theatre Erin discussed the health impacts of cosmetic female genital surgery, unpacked why women are undergoing these procedures and dispelled myths around body expectations.
SHFPACT were greatly encouraged by the success of the event and believe that participants left celebrating healthy diversity.
The SoSAFE! Tools (together with SoSAFE! User Training) provide teachers, trainers and counsellors with skills and simple visual tools to enhance the social, social-sexual and social safety training of people with moderate to severe intellectual disability. SoSAFE! uses a standardised framework of symbols, visual teaching tools and concepts to teach strategies for moving into intimate relationships in a safe and measured manner, and provides visual communication tools for reporting physical or sexual abuse.
