Accessing Sexual Health Care for People with Severe Mental Illness
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Barriers and Facilitators to Accessing Sexual Health Care for People with Severe Mental Illness in England
IRAS ID
335538
Contact name
Margaret Heslin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
Background
People with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) (e.g., schizophrenia) experience more physical illnesses compared to those who do not have mental illness. As a result, mental health services are increasingly offering service users regular health checks and healthy living advice. However, sexual health often remains overlooked.
People with SMI have a range of unmet sexual health needs, including a lack of knowledge around staying healthy sexually, increased risk of sexually transmitted infections, and difficulty accessing contraception. However, people with SMI are also LESS likely to attend sexual health services. Improved engagement with, and access to, sexual health services is essential for the treatment and prevention of sexual ill health. However, we know very little why people with SMI are less likely to access sexual health services.
Therefore, this study will seek to identify the barriers to effective support and offer recommendations around sexual and reproductive health care in this group. We will do this by talking directly to people with SMI and sexual health staff.
What we plan to do
We will conduct one-to-one interviews with 30 people with SMI about their experiences of accessing and using sexual and reproductive health services. We will also interview sexual health staff about providing care to people with SMI. Findings will be summarised in a report with recommendations about how to improve engagement and access to sexual health services.
Patient and public involvement
We consulted people with SMI about a study on HIV and they raised the issue of general access to, and support from sexual health services, which we have developed into this study. This application and associated documents have been compiled in collaboration with a lived experience advisory panel, and a BRC patient group. These groups will collaborate with us on the analysis and write-up.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/NW/0092
Date of REC Opinion
23 Mar 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion