Apr
i am writing a project on the barriers to sexual health promotion in britain. please i need your views to this question.
Answer:
I'd say the number one barrier, overall, is culture itself.
In freewheeling Wester societies like Great Britain and, to a lesser extend, the United Says, we have a certain amount of freedom to discuss sexual health issues. However we can't assume the same about different cultures. In the United Says, for example, Hispanic populations typically receive some of the worst sexual health care in the country because of culture beliefs, coupled with poverty.
If you grow up with the idea that sexual health issues aren't important, especially if you grow up in a conservative environment that discourages sex as well as frank discussions about sex and sexual health, then you're bound to be less informed, overall, once you reach sexual maturity. Couple this conservative atmosphere with raging hormones and you've got a recipe for a sexual health public issues: teen pregnancy, STI's, and more.
In America, our greatest barrier to sexual health information is our conservative culture. Our president promotes abstinence-only sex education in schools, which has actually been shown to have no negative effect on teen pregnancy rates or rates of STI's, not because he feels these programs are working, but because of the social and moral obligation to uphold the ideas of hard-line Christian groups. Since our health care in America isn’t free and open to the public, poverty is also a major barrier to sexual health access.
In a country like Great Britain, with far better access to health care and especially sexual health care, the greatest barrier would be individual cultural groups. Although Britain is restrictive about the number of immigrants they grant, those immigrants are increasingly from conservative Muslim backgrounds, a religion that is a notorious critic of sexual health issues.
Answer:
Basically it comes down to cultural factors. Be it religion or social comfort with speaking about nudity/sex etc.
If people aren't willing to speak about sex, they can't be educated about the dangers and the importance of protecting themselves against the many sexually transmitted diseases.
Many people are too embarrased to speak about any problems they are having with sexual organs as they feel people might view them as dirty so they don't dare visit a doctor to speak about it.
Some parents won’t let their children be educated on the subject of sex in British schools. This can be for religious reasons or simply because they are not happy with their children being taught about sex by a “stranger”.
In USA at the moment there are certain states/schools that only instruct the abstinance method. They teach kids nothing about the possible dangers of sexually transmitted diseases and don’t promote condoms as a safe method of contraception. As a result the number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases has increased massively as people have unprotected sex instead of using “unreliable” condoms.
You also need to consider literacy and other forms of education. If someone can't read then how can they understand the literature on safe sex?
Answer:
There is an interesting inference from one of the answerers that 'conservative' Muslims are a barrier to sexual health education yet I would suspect that the incidence of underage sex, teenage promiscuity, unwanted pregnancy and STDs are very much higher in the 'liberated, progressive' mainstream population….
Answer:
I dont like the word multicultural, but if you mean, what foreign influences prevent english ways from being implemented then it will be religous zealotry, backward thinking and mistreatment of the fairer sex.
Answer:
Condoms are the ideal barrier method.