Meet us where we're at: Understanding needs, preferences and acceptability of sexual and reproductive health testing, contraceptives and counselling outside of traditional clinical settings
- Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
- Total publications:0 publications
Grant number: 202110LGL
Grant search
Key facts
Disease
COVID-19Start & end year
20212022Known Financial Commitments (USD)
$158,000Funder
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)Principal Investigator
N/A
Research Location
CanadaLead Research Institution
University of VictoriaResearch Priority Alignment
N/A
Research Category
Policies for public health, disease control & community resilience
Research Subcategory
Community engagement
Special Interest Tags
N/A
Study Type
Clinical
Clinical Trial Details
Not applicable
Broad Policy Alignment
Pending
Age Group
Unspecified
Vulnerable Population
Sexual and gender minorities
Occupations of Interest
Unspecified
Abstract
2SLGBTQQIA+ people in Canada have unique needs and experience barriers within sexual and reproductive health care (SRHC), where many providers have little knowledge of our experiences, bodies, or sexual and reproductive health needs. During COVID-19, access to traditional in-person clinical care shifted dramatically. For 2SLGBTQQIA+ communities the pandemic exacerbated issues in access, while also introducing new options like virtual care. Access to in-person health services was reduced, there were greater challenges in accessing fertility clinics, abortion services, and surgical procedures, including gender affirming surgeries (considered non-urgent by the health system). At the same time, health care providers in many provincial contexts began providing virtual care, such as STBBI testing, HIV care and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) appointments. Led by the Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC), in collaboration with our project partners, we seek to identify 2SLGBTQQIA+ community needs, preferences, and acceptability of SRHC outside of traditional clinical settings, with a focus on community members who face intersecting forms of oppression; to understand the experiences, challenges and learnings of SRHC providers in non-traditional clinical care settings; and identify recommendations for policy and practice changes. Utilizing a community-based research approach, informed by decolonization, intersectionality and sex and gender based analysis (SGBA+), research activities are (a) secondary analysis of survey that CBRC have collected through its national 2SLGBTQQIA+ COVID-19 study; (b) English & French qualitative interviews with SRHC providers who support 2SLGBTQQIA+ communities; (c) English & French qualitative focus groups with 2SLGBTQQIA+ community members who have accessed SRHC; (d) development of resources to support the implementation of community-oriented approaches to proiding SRHC to 2SLGBTQQIA+ communities.