Linking men to family planning services
The federal Office of Family Planning in Beth esda, MD, has taken the first step in what may lead to expanded services for men through Title X-funded programs. Ten research grants totalling $2 million have been awarded to male-oriented organizations in developing, implementing, and testing approaches to involve young men in family planning and reproductive health services.
While the money may represent a small fraction of the $203.4 million of Title X funds administered by the government agency, it is a move in the right direction in including young men in the family planning scene.
"Experience has shown us that traditional family planning clinics have difficulty attracting males," says Barbara Cohen, a policy analyst with the agency. "What we are trying to find are places and programs that already involve males in some aspect, and putting the services or a good referral mechanism for services in there because they have a captive audience."
About 2% of federal dollars now go to reproductive health services for young men, she says. There is an established need for such services: Only 32% of sexually experienced young men and 17% of male virgins in a national survey say they have received contraceptive information from health care providers.1 (For details, see Contracep tive Technology Update, August 1998, p. 97.) "We believe that the research gives reason to think that males want to be involved in family planning and that they can actually help with even their partner’s own use of contraceptives, even if they rely on a female method."
The grants, ranging from $100,000 to $250,000, have been awarded to 100 Black Men of America in Atlanta; Action for Boston Community Develop ment; Bienvenidos Children’s Center in Los Angeles; Brooklyn (NY) Perinatal Network; Challengers Boys and Girls Club in Los Angeles; Concerned Black Men (national) in Washington, DC; Concern ed Black Men (Philadelphia chapter); Fifth Ward Enrichment Program in Houston; Youth Opportunities Unlimited in Marks, MS; University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Institute for Health, Science and Society.
The Greensboro program is a cooperative venture among the University, the Guilford County health department, and Wise Guys, a male responsibility/teen pregnancy prevention program offered by the local Family Life Council. Wise Guys, developed in 1989, includes young men ages 10 to 19, focusing on those in the seventh grade, says Rodd Smith, Family Life Council male responsibility educator. The council has worked with area schools to implement Wise Guys in grade seven because its program research indicates that the majority of young men in that age group are not yet sexually active.
The Title X grant has allowed Wise Guys to add a peer education component and the university to perform program analysis. Perhaps the most significant benefit, though, has come from the addition of Jonathan Lucas, the first male educator in the Guilford County health department. While the agency does have STD clinic and vasectomy services for males, there have been no dedicated services especially for men, says Annette Sentner, MS, an agency community health educator.
By having a male educator in the health department, young men perceive the agency as more "male-friendy." Lucas plays a game with Wise Guys participants called "Myth or Reality in the Health Department," to educate them on available services. "He asks if men can go to the health department and receive services, and all the guys in the class say no,’" Smith explains. "Of course, that is where he is employed, so yes, men can go there." In addition to providing contraceptive and reproductive health education through Wise Guys, Lucas offers one-on-one reproductive health counseling at the health department.
The greatest misconception about the health department is that test results are shared with parents, he says. Other myths include the belief that the agency serves only poor people and that everyone must be tested for pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. Lucas addresses misconceptions about sex through classes and one-on-one counseling, and he accompanies young men concerned about STD infections to testing to help ease their fears. "They have all heard horror stories of going to the clinic, and they don’t want to go. When I first started here, I went to the clinic to see what it was actually like because I didn’t know myself, and it can get scary."
The traditional clinic setting, especially when it is the site for HIV testing, can be off-putting for adults, and even more so for adolescent patients. (For information on how to make a clinic "teen-friendly," see CTU, October 1997, p. 128.)
The addition of Lucas has definitely expanded the reach of the health department, says Sentner.
"We have had schools over the last few years who have been interested in education, but it was hard to reach them all with the limited number of educators we had on staff," she notes. "The Title X has helped us get into more of the middle schools in Guilford County and reach more teen males."
Reference
1. Urban Institute. 1995 National Survey of Adolescent Males. Washington, DC; 1998.
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