Feature

Honest communication is the key

Open information and a better example from adults would help promote the sexual health of young people, argues Ruth Abraham

I believe young people have a need for and a right to correct information, and the opportunity to ask questions and discuss issues which affect their lives. These issues include sex and relationships. Many young people will act on their sexual feelings whether or not approval is forthcoming from parents, schools, churches, governments and society in general. Given this reality, the best we can do for young people is to accept that if they are sexually active, they should be so as safely as possible, and for this they need information.

Nurses’ responsibilities include health promotion and education, so that young people coming to a family planning clinic will receive information, support and advice, as well as supplies or relevant treatment.

Quite a lot of young people attend clinics asking for advice and information about contraception, sexually transmitted diseases and safer sex, before they have intercourse. They come in alone, with friends, with partners, and sometimes, parents.

But there are many young people who lack such confidence and consistently take huge sexual risks regarding potential pregnancy and infection.

For a number of years, the Family Planning Association has advocated teaching young children in gentle and non-threatening ways about relationships, moving towards more specific sex education as they grow older. Much of the information young people get about sex is from other young people and a lot of it is wrong.

The future health, in the widest sense, of young people depends on honest communication, and access to facilities like sex education and clinics. Evidence from Holland suggests that better sex education and the availability of related health services increases young people’s self-confidence and lessens the number of unplanned pregnancies and terminations.

To deny young people the chance to discuss all this in an informed and supportive situation, as recent government reactions to the school nurse in Leeds and its banning of the book Your Pocket Guide to Sexseem to do, is taking several steps backwards and is lacking in common sense.

Taking the moral highground does nothing to increase self-awareness, self-confidence and self-responsibility. It does nothing to help young people make informed choices, or explore their feelings, or examine their behaviour. As well as being a physical act, sex encompasses emotional needs, power issues, and relationships. Presented with some pretty rotten adult examples, the need for good dialogue with young people is important. Schools and youth organisations can all have a positive role in helping young people to look at the realities of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancies and the complexities of relationships and sexual identity.

But none of this will be achieved unless resources are made available. Those of us who hold such views are not urging young people to have sex all over the place — in fact the more they know, the later they start to have sex. It is about being caring realists and treating young people with respect.