June 2008

Stop press: Interesting article on sexual health clinics in school here.

There has been lots of activity over the last week around sexual health in the media, mostly about Chlamydia. BBC Scotland aired a programme (The Investigation) made by Demus Production's Stuart Rivens, and presented by Pennie Taylor on 2nd June, examining why men might not know they have Chlamydia. I took part along with several other people: Drs Allan Pacey and Adrian Eley, from Sheffield University whose research shows there is a link between Chlamydia and male infertility, Dr Andy Winter, Consultant in Genito-Urinary Medicine at The Sandyford Initiative, Karen Lorimer, Researcher at MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, and the stars of the show - a load of school boys. There's a short part of the programme here that was used as a news item, or you can 'listen again' to the whole thing, on the BBC site here. I spent a good hour half talking to Pennie, and it's a shame that a lot of what I said about young men being amenable to talking about their sexual health, in the right context, didn't make it into the programme. However, I think Karen made a similar, although not quite the same, point, so it wasn't all doom and gloom.

Pointing to the programme, Judith Duffy had a front page article in the Sunday Herald on the 1st June called 'Scotland's hidden sexual epidemic', which was responded to vigourously by readers. Again, the conversation I had with Judith included me recommending that the good practices provided by the young peoples' health services in the voluntary sector in Glasgow, for example H4U in Easterhouse and Health Spot in Castlemilk be replicated better.

The reaction to the news that MPs had rejected moves to lower the time limits on abortion was disappointingly ridiculous. Reading through comments from web readers on the BBC article the overwhelming response was that if women kept their legs shut there wouldn't need to be abortions. It's no wonder that we aren't able to address men's approach to their health easily! Anyway, it was a good decision.

Coming up in June is International Men's Health Week, and here in Scotland lots of stuff will be going on. Top of the list for me are the Men's 10k in Glasgow on Fathers' day, and the Men's Health Forum Scotland International Conference on June 11th. I hope to run in the 10k, although an injury to my Achilles tendon may make that impossible. However, I will definitely be chairing the conference, at which a range of speakers will be examining the issues relating specifically to men around violence, mental health, and sexual health. There are a few places left, so if you want to attend you can register on-line here.

Other than that the house is turning into a zoo, with a colony of bats roosting with us, and several families of toads here also.

March 2008

As expected, much to-ing and fro-ing between prisons has been going on this month, as the facilitation of the SPS staff training to deliver a pilot education programme on sex and relationships for prisoners. Initial reactions have been favourable, but the proof of the pudding will be what prisoners think about it once some of them go through the actual sessions. I'm feeling lucky to be seeing lots of the country's beautiful scenery on my travels: there's a fair amount of snow still on the hills - as well as a whole load of wind farms, which seem to be popping up everywhere.

This month is a busy one in terms of things to look out for: Healthy Respect will be feeding back on its successes in demonstrating how to deliver sexual health work for young people over the years at a conference. Also, the report on the stock take of actions undertaken to progress Respect and Responsibility should be released by the Scottish Government. This is fairly important for the sexual health field in Scotland, as it will highlight where things are moving ahead but will also flag up gaps in improving services for, and responses to the needs of, Scotland's population.

As well as these events, this month, Shona Robison, Minister for Public Health, will attend the Cross Party Group on Sexual Health, to answer questions from the field. In some ways I feel that we are asking the same questions that were getting asked over ten years ago, which is pretty disappointing. However, her responses will be interesting to hear.

I suspect that with finances in the public sector getting ever tighter, sexual health work will need to be incorporated into wider efforts to address mental well-being, as most of the behavioural changes that are needed to improve relationships and sexual health outcomes depend on a healthy level of self-esteem and communication skills. Both of these fit well into work that need not be called 'sexual' at all, avoiding much of the negative reaction associated with trying to tackle the population's sexual activities. That's not to say I think the fight to have sex talked about much more openly should be put on hold or anything, because that's massively important in improving peoples' relationships too - it's just that the real issues are sometimes obscured by the 'conservatives vs. liberals' argument I think.

This month fpa have launched an online petition as part of their campaign launch to protect the 24 week time limit on abortion. You can find it on the front of their website. Please sign it and forward it on to as many colleagues, friends and family that you can. Obviously its imperative that as many signatures as possible are gathered and that it travels as far and wide as it can. It is also battling against an anti abortion one created by the pro-life umbrella group Alive and Kicking so we don’t want them to get more signatures than us. They will also be launching a postcard campaign to send to MPs to support the current time limit. Any questions about the campaign can be directed to Rebecca Findlay, fpa's Press and Campaigns Manager.

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to doing some training work in the months to come with Adrienne Hannah and Myra Anderson, both excellent practitioners in the field, and marvellous people to spend time with, so things are looking good.

February 2008

February 1st was Breathing Space Day in Scotland. If you haven't heard of Breathing Space you need to go and have a look at their website and then tell all your friends and acquaintances about this service. Breathing Space is an organisation that provides a listening ear to anyone who is feeling like they need to talk about things. This can be for any reason ranging from that general feeling of low mood that we all get from time to time, right through to severe mental health issues. It's been operating for quite a few years now and has made good links with a lot of other organisations. They are also heavily involved with the Men's Health Forum Scotland 10k for men, and field a big team for it each year, as they believe that people take their breathing space in various ways, but for many men physical exercise is a great source of relaxation and time out. In a world where we don't often get the chance to have someone just listen to us, without judging us or telling us what it's been like for them, this is a great service. Anyway, I was lucky enough to go and speak at their event celebrating the day, and met some really lovely people there.

The rest of the month will be spent organising and starting to facilitate the Sex and Relationships Education training for SPS staff, as the next stage of this project has been given the go-ahead.

I am also starting work on staging a conference in the autumn on adult and older peoples' sexual health work, which will probably be called 'Sexual Health for grown-ups'. So if you are interested in knowing more about that, or have examples of successful work in this area please get in touch.

December 2007

This month has mainly been spent following up November's round of prison visits with writing up a report and preparing for the next stage of the work. More news on that next year after some crucial meetings with SPS in January to see how they want to go ahead with it. Meeting the people in the 15 prisons across the country was an eye-opening experience: it was quite humbling to see a whole community that I have rarely thought about much, and have never stepped foot in before. It's a world of its own which in many ways reconfirmed my belief in our need as a society to tackle the damaging effects of men of the traditional masculinity stereotypes we push young men into.

Jim Leishman and I delivered our Masculinity and Health Service Provision training day and got good feedback from the participants, as well as really enjoying the day working with others who are working in the field. I always find facilitating training a boost in that way, i.e. you get a buzz from the enthusiasm and real practical experience that the participants bring to the event. Anyway, we will definitely be putting it on again. Give either of us a ring, or email us if you are interested in attending or having us come and deliver a course for your team.

The rest of the month was taken up with moving house and the festivities of the holidays.

November 2007

Things have got off to a busy start with various pieces of training work to do in the different fields I wanted to concentrate on. The big thing for me for the next few months however, is prisons. I will spend a lot of November behind bars. In a good way. Subcontracting for fpa, who won a tender to do the work for the Scottish Prison Service, I am currently doing research to look at the establishment of a sex and relationships education programme that could potentially be delivered to all prisoners across the whole Scottish prison system. This means visiting all the 15 prisons to talk to staff and inmates. There are already good pieces of work going on in some of the prison establishments, with Caledonia Youth, for example, delivering a number of programmes at various sites. The work I am involved in is not meant to duplicate any of this but to complement it and to consistently provide a basic programme for all prisoners. In terms of providing an extra opportunity for those in prison to improve their life skills I think it will certainly be very useful. There will always be those who feel any kind of sexual health and relationships education is inappropriate for prisoners, but frankly, they're wrong - so having a chance to be involved in getting sex ed into the fabric of such a massive institution hits all the right buttons for me.

There are still a few places on the Masculinity and Health Service Provision course that Jim Leishman and I are running in December. It would be good to see it filled up since there is little other support in the same vein available for those working in the field of men's health.

In terms of the website, I will be working towards completing it over the christmas holidays, as time is limited at the moment and I just can't seem to get enough of it to get all the content written. Several organisations have contacted me to do some consultancy work regardless of that bit not being finished, but it still doesn't feel right. As always, please get in touch if you want to discuss any work you may want me to get involved in.

October 2007

Tim Street Training and Consultancy Services has been established to build on the foundation of nearly twenty years experience of working in the public and voluntary sectors. Over this time I have managed teams of varying size, developing the skills and confidence of many individuals through coaching and mentoring, and providing training and facilitation to teams to help them fulfill their potential. This has been whilst employed by different organisations and charities: now I'm doing the work on a freelance basis.

Most of the training work that I am involved in will be specifically designed for commissioners but there will occasionally be courses open to anyone interested in the subject matter. And so you don't miss it:

Working with Jim Leishman I will be delivering the course Masculinity and Health Service Provision on December 7th: see the course outline for details.

I will also be delivering training courses for other organisations whom I feel work to a high standard in their particular fields, for instance: fpa, on all things to do with sexual health, and for Employee Counselling Service on managing stress in the workplace.

Copyright © 2007 Tim Street Training and Consultancy Services
Last modified: 06/12/08