City Research Online

Abstract

Today, there is widespread agreement that investment in comprehensive sexuality education is critical if as a society we wish to promote sexual health amongst citizens. To this end, in addition to investing in sexual health education, there is an international, national and regional recognition that part of that investment must be in the area of capacity building, which is a key feature of sustainable and effective health promotion. Building capacity increases the range of people, organisations and communities who are able to address health problems, and increases critical problem solving and collaboration within and across organisations, thus multiplying health gains. Similar to international trends, within Ireland the importance of sexual health promotion has been identified as a priority in a number of policy documents and research reports. In addition, there is a move from an issues-driven focus on unintended pregnancy, crisis pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections to a broader multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary concentration on the determinants of sexual health, other forms of sexual health promotion, and sexual health capacity building. However, despite this, there is a limited knowledge base evaluating the outcomes of education and training for those involved in sexual health promotion for capacity building, within both the national and international literature. The focus of this report is the evaluation of the Foundation Programme in Sexual Health Promotion (FPSHP). The FPSHP was developed by staff within the southern region of the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) in response to an identified need for a more comprehensive programme to develop the sexual health promotion capacity of health, education and community workers in this region. The overall aim of the FPSHP is to enhance participants’ capacity to incorporate sexual health promotion into their work through the development of their comfort levels, confidence, knowledge and skills in relation to sexual health. The programme is comprised of ten days education, with five, two-day sessions spread over four to five months. Between 2009 and the summer of 2012, when the evaluation process began, 12 programmes had been delivered in three HSE South regions. In total, 200 participants completed the programme, drawn from a variety of health, education and social care backgrounds. The evaluation study aimed to: - evaluate the effectiveness of the FPSHP (and its support activities) in building capacity amongst health, education and community professionals with regard to the promotion of sexual health within HSE South; and - establish whether the FPSHP demonstrated sufficient promise in relation to its contribution to sexual health promotion capacity building to warrant a further feasibility study regarding its extension beyond HSE South.

Publication Type:	Monograph (Project Report)
Additional Information:	© Higgins A., Daly L., de Vries J., Keogh B., McCann E., and Sharek D. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, without written permission of the authors
Publisher Keywords:	sexual health; health promotion
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Nursing

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