Two programs designed to support condom use
April 1, 1999
Two programs designed to support condom use
Advertise condoms and increase accessibility
Are you arming your patients with condoms for protection against HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)? Providing condoms in the clinical setting is important, but community accessibility to condoms and safer sex information also plays an important role in the fight against what public health experts have termed "the hidden epidemic."
The annual National Symposium on Over coming Barriers to Condom Use, scheduled this year for June 1-2 in New York City, covers advertising, social marketing, technical advances, testing, and regulation. (See resource listing, p. 45, for symposium contact information.) Partici pants from organizations throughout the world share strategies for increasing condom use in a variety of populations.
Interested in casting a wide net for condom availability? Take a look at how the following two programs participating in the 1998 symposium have worked to make condoms an accepted norm in their communities.
"How do you compare to a typical NIU student?" asks an advertisement developed by the health enhancement services division of the university health service at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb. The ad points out that most students practice healthy behaviors that allow them to be safe in their campus activities. One such behavior? More than half of all students use condoms for STD protection during intercourse.
In 1989, only 30% of Northern Illinois students surveyed indicated they used condoms always or mostly during sex. About 2,500 visits for STDs were logged at the student health center. By 1997, 61% of students reported they used condoms always or mostly during sex. Rates for chlamydia rates and gonorrhea were down by 50%.
Why such a dramatic drop? "We firmly believe that the increased use of condoms is due almost entirely because of how available we have made condoms, as well as the per cep tion that everybody is using them," says Michael Haines, MS, coordinator of health enhancement services at Northern Illinois’ university health service. "We think that the availability and the social norm play off of each other."
When condoms were first made available on a large scale at the university, they were distributed through the pharmacy. Condoms now are readily accessible throughout the campus, including the wellness resource center, recreation center, and the three waiting rooms at the health service. Large quantities of condoms are signed out to residence hall advisors, Greek organizations, and other groups, says Steven Lux, MS, a health educator. Group leaders must sign a condom policy and accessibility agreement, noting that condoms are not to be distributed but only made available in a free-choice access method along with printed health education information.
A 1996 campus survey contained questions that allowed comparison of students’ own condom use with their perception of condom use by other students. Health educators noted a significant positive correlation between student perceptions of other students’ condom use and their own condom use, notes Haines.
The safer image
Condom use now is an accepted norm on the Northern Illinois campus. That message is continually reinforced with media (such as the student newspaper ad) and other forms of education. Health educators have developed "Info-Packs" with educational handouts and condoms for students who wish to do a presentation on preventing STDs or condom use in their speech, health, or women’s studies classes. The packs contain a "do-it-yourself" outline that helps students present an educational message to their peers.
Want to reach more women with a safer sex message? ABCD Health Services in Boston expanded its contraceptive availability network in 1997 to include hair salons serving Hispanic women.
The hair salons are among many of ABCD’s efforts to make condoms more accessible to all segments of the population, says Irvienne Goldson, education and training manager. Condoms are distributed at no charge to such diverse businesses as barber shops and auto body shops on a regular basis. By consistently replenishing supplies and providing an assortment of condom selections, community members begin to rely on the businesses as condom resources, with more than 11,000 condoms now distributed each month.
Teaching the message
Education plays a large part in broadcasting the safer sex message. ABCD health educators have made presentations in hair salons as well as at community organizations, and they now take the message home through "Safety Net" parties. State funds have been made available to train community women as facilitators and hostesses for the in-home events.
Safety Net parties cover such issues as substance abuse, female anatomy and physiology, reproductive health, and STDs, all presented in a relaxed atmosphere.
Participants play a variety of games that help convey the safer-sex message. One game, called "high risk/low risk/no risk," uses flashcards with such beliefs as "trust" and "inability to talk to a partner" written on them. In talking about whether a card represents high, low, or no risk, women are able to deal with several issues, says Goldson.
At the end of the party, each participant receives a safer-sex bag, an attractive container with both male and female condoms.
Making presentations in the salons presents challenges because educators must be able to present information without interrupting hair appointments, Goldson says. Educators are evaluating use of a short video that can be shown between weekly presentations, she notes.
Resource
For more information on the National Symposium on Overcoming Barriers to Condom Use, contact:
• Pharmacists Planning Service, 101 Lucas Valley Road, Suite 210-E, San Rafael, CA 94903. Telephone: (415) 479-8628. Fax (415) 479-8608. E-mail: [email protected].
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