Ms Aditi Sharma1, Ms Alison Coelho2, Ms Masha Mikola3
1Center For Culture, Ethnicity And Health , Richmond, Australia, 2Center For Culture, Ethnicity And Health, Richmond, Australia, 3Center For Culture, Ethnicity And Health, Richmond, Australia
International students in Australia are increasing yearly. Many service providers have shown concerns about unplanned pregnancies leading to terminations among hetero sexual students and HIV infections among same sex attracted international students. This is mainly due to very little sexual and reproductive health education in their countries of origin along with a disparity between what their actual needs are to what is offered by the service providers along with little or no knowledge about screening for PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis). Due to an alarming increase in the rates of HIV infection among male international students and high rates of termination of pregnancies among female international students, health professionals in the university and community sectors have made sexual health a priority area for discussion and provide awareness of the concerns faced by the international student’s population. This panel will provide an opportunity for discussion about how we can provide effective university-based services in conjunction with insurance providers that cater to the needs of international students. The panel will also look at strategies to address the increasing statistics. The panel discussion will be followed by the screening of the documentary on sexual assault in Australian universities and a Q&A session with the panel members. We will also be providing an activity session where we will be sharing some resources developed by the Center for Culture, Ethnicity and Health that could be used as an educational model to promote discussion about sexual health and relationships in young people.
Biography:
Alison has worked in local government developing and implementing the first prevention based Health & Well-being Plan in the State with the Diversity Strategy, Reconciliation Policies and a Women’s Health Initiative. Prior to this she spent more than a decade in the community sector in refugee policy development, advocacy, regional coordination and direct service in metropolitan Melbourne. Alison is a sitting member of the Victorian Ministerial Blood Borne Viruses Advisory Committee, a member of the Victorian Hepatitis B Alliance (VHBA) and Board member of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO). She is the founding member and Chair of the new Australian Multicultural Alliance on Sexual Health (AMASH).