Promoting Sexual Health to Mental Health Patients

According to a UK study published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, there is a desperate need for mental health workers to guide and instruct those patients with mental illnesses on sexual health issues, including HIV transmission risks. The recent study prompted mental health workers to promote sexual health with their patients, especially those who have been labeled as schizophrenic.

The survey was taken by close to 300 employees in the mental health field. Of the respondents, approximately 80% of them felt that part of their job duties include promoting positive sexual health issues; however, only 30% of the respondents admitted to actually discussing these vital issues with their patients. In addition, the survey also demonstrated that almost 40% of the respondents did not always wear gloves when necessary in procedures that could potentially expose them to HIV.

Dr. Elizabeth Hughes was the author of the study done at the Institute of Psychiatry and states, “We were encouraged by the respondents’ positive attitudes to sexual health promotion and the fact that the majority (78%) agreed that mental health workers should have mandatory training in the subject. But we were disappointed that less than a third were actually providing the advice and guidance that people with serious mental illnesses need. The fact that 14% felt uncomfortable discussing sexual health issues and 13% were uncomfortable discussing gay and lesbian issues may have some bearing on the low level of sexual health promotion recorded by this survey. Lack of awareness of the increased HIV risks faced by service users with schizophrenia was also a particular concern, as studies have shown that they have higher HIV infection rates than the general population. These range from 5% in Europe to up to 19% in North America.”

Dr. Hughes worries in particular about the risk of HIV infection to the mental health workers, “Four out of ten people who took part in our study admitted they didn’t routinely wear gloves when they gave patients injections and glove wearing for other clinical procedures varied.” Of the respondents, the majority were registered nurses and the rest varied from clinical psychologists to social workers and nursing assistants.

The survey also revealed other findings. For example, over 90% of the respondents did not realize that schizophrenics were at higher risk of contracting HIV and over 70% of the respondents also were not aware that schizophrenics were more likely to engage in riskier sexual activities. Other findings revealed that over half of the respondents agreed that wards should install dispensers for condoms. Approximately 80% of the mental health workers felt that they encouraged their patients to use contraceptives like condoms, but less than 30% of the workers actually had condoms available to distribute. Dr. Hughes states, “As a result, we are calling for improved training on the sexual health risks faced by people with serious mental illness and better links between mental health and sexual health services. We would also like to see more research into the kinds of sexual risk behaviours that people with serious mental illness engage in and targeted intervention to make them more aware of, and reduce, the risks they expose themselves to.”