Title: Good sex? Building evidence based practice in sexual health services for young people.
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: The proposed project addresses a well defined real world problem: how to include and prioritise pleasure in sexual health work with young people. The project builds on an established collaboration between the PI and partner organsiation Brook which includes a co-funded PhD research project documenting young people's understandings of 'good sex'. Lead by Ester McGeeney (the researcher responsible for the original investigation and an experienced practitioner), the project will achieve knowledge exchange in the following areas: (1) Public awareness: Research evidence will be collated to provide a robust account of how values, attitudes and expectations underpin sexual risk taking, the part played by social inequalities and the relative efficacy of 'sex positive' approaches to education and service development. The research will be translated into forms that will be useful to Brook in the tendering and commissioning of services as well as its national role in advocacy. Outputs will include a flexible evidence review highlighting lessons and findings relevant to Brooks Sex: Positive campaign; bespoke training for trustees and the production of a short audio-visual resource for use through the Brook website. (2) Direct work with young people: A key outcome of the work will be the development of an educational resource for use with young people drawing on the qualitative element of McGeeney's research. The researcher will work with the Brook Young Volunteers and filmmaker Susi Arnott to develop materials that are made f'or and with' young people. This work will draw on interview and focus group material generated through the original research, exploring innovative and ethical strategies for re-animating this material for educational use. The knowledge exchange components will also involve the sharing of filmmaking and communication skills within the team. (3) Training of Sexual Health workers: McGeeney's 'Good Sex' research identifies a series of challenges that can only be addressed through the training of staff undertaking sexual health work with young people including medical and educational/ outreach staff. The project will develop a self complete online-module that will be integrated into Brook's existing online induction programme and a short training workshop aimed at sexual health staff. To ensure that this training can be delivered after the project has finished, six Brook staff members will be trained to deliver the training and integrate it into local and national training and development programmes. Training sessions, activities and resources will be recorded to produce audio-visual material that will be made publically available online. The project will take place over the course of the 2013 calendar year, following the submission of the thesis. McGeeney will work on the study 2 days a week with the support and management of Prof. Thomson and the CEO of Brook Simon Blake. A consultant filmmaker (Susi Arnott), with a track record of successful collaboration with Prof. Thomson will work with the researcher over the year to produce three flexible audio visual outputs of professional standard. The project will be recorded through an open access online research blog.


Research activity codes: 3.1 PRIMARY PREVENTION INTERVENTIONS TO MODIFY BEHAVIOURS OR PROMOTE WELL-BEING
Health categories: REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND CHILDBIRTH;INFECTION