Funding granted to extend student sexual health service at AIT
A student sexual health service which started in Athlone IT just over a year ago has been granted a funding extension to allow it continue operating until the end of May.
The service, supported by the HSE's Sláintecare Integration fund, began on a pilot basis in late January, 2020.
Laura Tully, AIT's Institute Nurse and Health Centre Coordinator, said that, in its first year, it provided more than 700 specialised clinical consultations to students, as well as 135 referrals for contraception.
It was initially funded until December 2020, but recently received an extended grant to continue providing services to students throughout the current semester.
Laura explained that it had been established to provide "a comprehensive sexual health service on campus which meets the needs of the growing student population – 61% of whom are aged 18-24 and are classified as 'high risk' for sexually transmitted infections."
Before it was put in place, students in AIT faced the prospect of having to travel to Ballinasloe or Mullingar, and sometimes further, in order to access specialised treatment.
Laura said that, before last year, 90% of students who were referred for sexual health appointments did not attend for a variety of reasons, such as distance, travel time, expense of travel, and timing of clinics.
Concerned about this public health issue, she made a successful pitch to Sláintecare in 2019 for funding to provide the service to students on campus.
In addition to providing clinical consultations, the service has worked on promotional campaigns supporting positive sexual health, consent and increased knowledge and awareness of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), in collaboration with AIT Healthy Campus and the students' union.
Laura said that patient outcomes had improved significantly as a result of the service.
"We are detecting and treating infections earlier which results in significantly better patient outcomes as well as reducing the substantial medical, non-medical burdens and economic costs associated with STIs," she said.
"I think our project has the potential to be implemented as a model of best practice for community-based healthcare across the technological higher education and primary care sector in the future, we are overwhelmed with the engagement, positive feedback and clinical outcomes to date."
The pandemic has had an impact on the delivery of the project, with the March 2020 closure of the campus in response to Covid-19 resulting in the immediate cessation of all campus activity and the redeployment of members of staff to the HSE.
"The project was designed to run over a 20-week period in early 2020 and unfortunately, as a result of Covid-19 we were unable to retain the specialist staff recruited to deliver the project which has been a significant blow.
"However, like all other areas of the Institute, we have pivoted and developed an alternative model of care via a telehealth service to facilitate safe, secure, remote consultations for times when it is not safe to deliver in-person care.
"During the closure we also established a new condom postal distribution service, which has proven to have very high engagement, and have distributed over 600 sexual health packs to students throughout the pandemic," she stated.