Clark County Health Department's "Get Yourself Tested" Campaign, Part 5
Friday, July 29th, 2016 -- 9:23 AM
-The Clark County Health Department is encouraging county residents to get tested for STI’s.I spoke with Kelsey Lynn, a nurse at Clark County’s Reproductive Health Clinic, and Melissa Kono, the county’s CNRED agent, about an initiative they’re running known as they “Get Yourself Tested” Initiative. Kelsey and Melissa will talk about why people need to be willing to discuss this topic regardless of how uncomfortable the conversation may be.
Kelsey: "If they're not comfortable going back to these partners to let them know that they did test positive, as long as they're willing to give me their partners name and phone number, I can go ahead and call those individuals and that's just away to get the conversation started. That partner that gave me that name, I just keep that completely confidential."
"I guess our target group for this "Get Yourself Tested" Campaign is 18 to 25-year-olds. So, with that, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that youth ages 15-24 make up just over 1/4 of sexually active people. But account for half of the 20 million new sexually transmitted infections that occur in the U.S. each year. So, again, the CDC, one in two sexually active young people will get an STI before the age of 25 and most will not know it unless they get tested. So, that's definitely our target range, that 18-25."
"And of course the barrier, especially in Clark County, is we don't have a University readily available to test that population. We have a lot of events throughout the summer in Clark County; however, a lot of them are family based and setting up a booth promoting STI awareness and testing isn't necessarily acceptable among the community as a whole."
Melissa: "I think one of the barriers to getting tested too is that it's the stigma, but also saying I want to go get tested for this versus it just being part of a routine healthcare."
Coming up on Monday, Kelsey will talk about other services the Reproductive Health Clinic in Greenwood offers.
In Case You Missed It:
Part 1: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=17122
Part 2: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=17125
Part 3: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=17131
Part 4: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=17137
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.