January-March | 2019 ssex Sexual Health Service receives E
Outstanding Achievement award
We are super proud to have been recognised for our commitment to supporting the sexual health of local people, in Essex County Council’s You Make the Difference Awards.
Essex Sexual Health Service accepts their Outstanding Achievement award. The Essex Sexual Health Service (ESHS) has been presented with an Outstanding Achievement Award for hard work and dedication in delivering top performance and use of technology to innovate the service - including the introduction of our eC-Card app.
Outstanding achievement: Essex Sexual Health Service is delighted to have received the coveted award for Outstanding Achievement, presented by Essex County Council Chief Executive, Gavin Jones. Kez Spelman, Clinical Contract Manager for ESHS, says:
“We are thrilled with our award, which recognises our innovative approach to delivering sexual health services in the county. Our eC-Card app and online testing came in for particular praise, as examples of our use of technology to make sexual health services easier and more straight-forward for people to access. “It was great to have some of our Intelligence Centre team with us on the night to collect the award. For, as well as handling calls from the public, making appointments and supporting access to the most appropriate care, they manage the day-to-day coordination of the eC-Card scheme, including setting up and restocking condom distribution venues.”
Twitter and Facebook were awash with posts throughout the awards ceremony, which took place at the tail end of last year, as individuals and teams were honoured for their contribution to making a difference in and across Essex. The annual awards recognise the hard work and dedication of Essex County Council employees, teams and partners who make a real difference to the people of Essex.
www.eshs.org.uk | 0300 003 1212
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@Provide_CIC PNL-3126-1908-01
January-March | 2019 eC-Card app:
ESHS’s innovative, new eC-Card app allows young people in Essex aged 16-24 quick, discrete and FREE access to condoms. Users follow a simple, secure registration process and take a short quiz before being directed to a convenient condom collection point.
The app uses geo location and maps to direct young people to the nearest venues, where a QR code is scanned for the user to discretely collect their free condoms.
In the first six months of launching the app, Essex Sexual Health Service has distributed over 2,500 condoms via the process and nearly 1,000 young people have now successfully registered the app to their smart phones. More than 80 condom collection points are currently listed on the app, with the number of distribution points growing all the time.
The cutting-edge app is available for Android and Apple iOS devices and can be downloaded from the App stores now by searching for ‘eC-Card’. Look out for the distinctive ESHS logo. Find out more at: www.bit.ly/eCCard Online access to sexual health testing:
The ESHS team also received praise for its ‘Test at Home’ online sexual health testing service for HIV, chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhoea.
Thanks to the ESHS initiative, Test at Home kits are available free of charge to people living in the Essex County Council area and can be ordered from the ESHS website. Users return their samples directly to the laboratory in the secure packaging provided, with results notified via email or text.
The innovative service has become increasingly popular since it was introduced in April 2016 - catering for the growing number of people looking for information online.
For more information about Test at Home visit www.eshs.org.uk
exual health & wellbeing support S
for young people
Brook founder Helen Brook CBE, 1907-1997
In 1964, birth control pioneer Helen Brook created a service for young women who couldn’t access contraception and desperately needed support. Helen, who had herself been a single mother, refused to let stigma and what was accepted stand in the way of what was needed for these young women, despite fierce opposition. 54 years later and Brook, now an established and respected national charity, is still supporting, educating and empowering young people (male and female) to make their own choices about their sexual health and wellbeing.
Brook in Essex
Since November 2017, Brook has been providing a health and wellbeing service for young people in Essex, as part of the county council commissioned Essex Sexual Health Service. This small (a team of three) but important part of the Essex Sexual Health Service is tasked with supporting, educating and empowering young people (under 25s) to make their own choices about their sexual health and wellbeing. In Essex, this includes providing support and training on Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) to professionals
www.eshs.org.uk | 0300 003 1212
@ESHS.Essex
@Provide_CIC PNL-3126-1908-01
January-March | 2019 and organisations. The team also work directly with young people as part of Brook’s My Life programme (weekly one hour one-to-one sessions with a Brook specialist). A little over a year down the line, and these new strands to the ESHS are already seeing some great results. From April 2018 to January 2019, Brook delivered training to more than 200 professionals across the county, including youth workers, school nurses, teachers, and school safeguarding leads; as well as providing in-house training for an entire charity – Yellow Door youth project in Canvey, Essex. The aim: to better equip people working with young people to deliver quality RSE.
Supporting young people In the same 10-month period, ESHS’s Brook team supported more than 70 young people face-to-face, as part of its My Life programme. Brook’s Essex lead, Joanne Quinn, says: “We are really pleased to be delivering the My Life programme in Essex – providing free, confidential one-to-one sessions to enable young people to reflect on themselves and their lives. “We inspire them to talk about their aspirations, set realistic goals and identify barriers to these and how they can overcome them. We consistently ask, what does the young person think, want and feel about the situation? What changes do they want to make to achieve this goal? “By the end of the programme, they are able to identify issues in their life that they want to address. They are generally more interested in their health and wellbeing, are clearer about their aspirations for the future, and have improved self-esteem, confidence and mental wellbeing.
“It’s so incredibly rewarding to engage with a young person and over the course of the six sessions see them put themselves at the forefront of their own thoughts – to see them taking charge and putting their own goals in place. Quite often they are referred for one thing but end up thinking about and making their own new/ different goals.” Joanne remarks: “For many young people it can be the first time anyone has asked them what they want for themselves.” Access to the My Life one-to-one programme is available through a variety of routes, including self-referral and, as the service is becoming more well-known, via publicity at freshers’ fairs and attendance at school wellbeing engagement events. However, the vast majority of people completing the My Life one-to-one programme to date have come via referral from their school nurse. Joanne says:
“As awareness of this service increases, more and more young people are going to their school nurse saying they have heard about the programme and asking to be put on it.” More information Information about all areas of Brook’s work in Essex, including the My Life programme and training for professionals working with young people, can be found at www.bit.ly/BrookEssex Alternatively, contact Joanne Quinn, Education & Wellbeing Co-ordinator for Brook in Essex. joanne.quinn@brook.org.uk
Brook – part of the Essex Sexual Health Service, supporting the sexual health and wellbeing of young people across the county.
www.eshs.org.uk | 0300 003 1212
@ESHS.Essex
@Provide_CIC PNL-3126-1908-01
January-March | 2019 ay in the Life of our lead consultant D NAME:
Dr Malaki Ramogi Clinical Lead for
ROLE: ESHS LOCATION:
ESHS Clinic, 66 High Street, Colchester
Dr Malaki Ramoji provides the clinical leadership for the ESHS. Under the ESHS model of care, it is the nurses who are responsible for assessing patients and deciding on the appropriate treating practitioner, with doctors supporting the management of care, led and delivered by nurses. In this relatively new way of doing things, the consultants and specialty doctors are able to focus on complex care whilst supporting nurses managing more routine interventions. Alongside delivering specialist sexual health services, Dr Ramogi supports the nurses through training and supervision, to deliver safe and effective integrated sexual health interventions for the people of Essex.
Like many of my colleagues, there is no such thing as a typical day in my role with ESHS. For the purposes of this interview I have settled on a Thursday because it covers the broad range of work that I am involved in as part of the ESHS Team. It is a bright and sunshiny Thursday morning. I was up around 6.30am today, as I am most weekdays, to give me enough time to drop my oldest daughter off at Colchester station to catch the train to London, where she is at college, before starting my working day. I get into the office around 8.30am. The clinic is in Colchester town centre, at 66 High Street – a former post office building across the road from Castle Park. My morning is taken up with our ‘consultant’ clinic which I conduct alongside other appointment lists managed by other members of the team. The appointments on my list start at 9am and continue until 12.30pm and are generally more complex presentations referred on by my nurse and doctor colleagues for my assessment as clinical lead. Under our new and innovative nurse-led service model, our nurses
www.eshs.org.uk | 0300 003 1212
Dr Malaki Ramogi are now delivering and managing a range of integrated sexual health care, including contraception management as well as testing, diagnosing, treating and following-up clients. What is great about this new way of working is that it has given nurses the opportunity to develop a broader range of skills and work with clients covering a broader range of needs. There are times when people coming in have complex needs or require a view from clinicians with more specialist knowledge and skills. This is where my consultant clinic comes in.
People are referred to my clinic for a variety of reasons. They might have been seen by the nurse who wants some specialist input, or by their GP, or at hospital by other specialties and they need specialist assessment and management by a consultant. The first patient of the day is a gentleman who has had multiple spots on his body and in the genital area. His GP is not sure if they are normal moles or maybe a viral infection, and has referred the patient to me for a specialist opinion. The patient wanted some advice on the right treatment, because this is a long-standing problem and the diagnosis was not clear. By speaking to him and examining him, I am able to come to a clear diagnosis and establish a clear plan on how we are going to manage the condition. In a realistic way, I am able to explain to the patient that it may require multiple visits and we may try different treatments.
@ESHS.Essex
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January-March | 2019 The majority of people who attend my specialist clinic have genital skin problems. Others have recurrent urological problems, whereby they have been referred by a urologist for investigation. We make sure there is no infection, before they can carry on with their urological investigation. We will look at the infection based on their symptoms and then liaise with the urologist or gynaecologist. So, for example, we may have men with a problem to do with the discomfort of passing of urine, or the frequency, and they wonder whether it is their prostate or an infection. So there’s a lot of interface between my specialty and the other specialties, making sure nothing is overlooked. I have another six appointments before lunch at 1pm. Being in Colchester town centre is great for people visiting the clinic, as we are so easily accessible. It also means I can pop out for 20-30 minutes and grab a simple snack ahead of my afternoon’s work. Initially this involves supporting a clinician colleague who is working through the management of STI results. This element of the service is crucial as we need to ensure that STI test results are swiftly communicated and that treatment is initiated as soon as possible to prevent onward transmission. Equally as important is ensuring that sexual partners know about the potential infection. It takes a really sensitive approach to support people with this information and make sure people are treated effectively.
www.eshs.org.uk | 0300 003 1212
Part of my work is supporting nurses making a diagnosis following examination. In this way, our team is able to develop its clinical skills and practice safely and conscientiously. As a clinical lead, it is really rewarding to see this.
There are a lot of changes in how medicine is practiced in my area – new innovations, new medication and new treatment. One of the things I love about this specialty and my job specifically, is the fact that it is a very dynamic area. There isn’t the monotony of doing the same thing every day. When I consider the developments and progress that have been made, even from when I started training to where I am now, it is incredible really. It’s an exciting service to be involved in.
@ESHS.Essex
@Provide_CIC PNL-3126-1908-01
January-March | 2019 eC-Card update Young people continue to register to use the eC-Card app as word spreads across the area:
1,000 registered users. 25% of users actively collecting condoms. 4,000 condoms collected. Approaching
The app currently has 100 venues offering the service with over half these dispensing condoms to users. We are keen to receive expressions of interest from organisations and groups who work with young people and would like to support the eC-Card scheme by becoming a venue or by training to be an approved assessor.
The eC-Card app can be downloaded via Google Play or the Apple App Store – search for ‘eC-Card’.
Sign up to receive future editions: provide.marketing@nhs.net
Application forms can be downloaded from www.essexsexualhealthservice.org.uk/for-professionals Two forms are available: eC-Card request to become a venue. eC-Card request to become an assessor. Please complete and submit your application/s to the service intelligence centre by email to provide.essexsexualhealthservice@nhs.net
A full range of sexual health services ESHS provides a free, confidential, non-judgemental service to the people of Essex regardless of sex, age, ethnic origin and sexual orientation. SERVICES OFFERED INCLUDE:
As lead provider for Essex Sexual Health Service, Provide CIC is proud to be working collaboratively with a number of other organisations to deliver sexual health services in Essex.
Testing, treatment and onward management of sexually transmitted infections ‘Test at Home’ online service for HIV, chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhoea Chlamydia screening Pregnancy and abortion support All forms of contraception Emergency contraception Deep implant removal General sex advice, counselling and support. This is provided in a number of ways, depending on the needs of the service user: information, advice and appointment booking via ESHS’s Intelligence Centre on 0300 003 1212, Test at Home, clinic attendance, or referral to other services.
www.eshs.org.uk | 0300 003 1212
Essex Sexual Health Service is commissioned by:
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@Provide_CIC PNL-3126-1908-01