April 6, 2005

Condom combat?

By Krista McFadden
kmcfadd8@uwo.ca

"If you choose sex, be smart about it," it said.

It's not the most typical door decoration for a student living in a university residence, but for Grace it was important.

"Health is number one," says Grace, a 21-year-old social justice and peace studies student at King's University College at the University of Western Ontario. "If somebody comes to me and asks for something and they are in need, I'm going to make it available along with information, period," he says.

Last October Grace was fired from his position as residence assistant at King's, a Catholic college, for saying he would give condoms to students who asked for them.

Grace says he wasn't actively passing out condoms and the condom-filled folder wasn't even hanging on his door.

Even so, administrators at King's felt providing condoms was too much in conflict with Catholic teachings. Catholics are not allowed to use forms of artificial birth control, including condoms.

Grace says sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unwanted pregnancies are a social reality.

In fact, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care reports that STIs are alarmingly on the rise in London-Middlesex, with the highest number of cases showing up in the age group of 18- to 24-year-olds.

In 1997 there were 400 cases of chlamydia - in 2003, the numbers more than doubled to 835 cases. Gonorrhea is also on the rise with an increase from 30 cases in 1996 to 123 cases in 2003.

While the data for 2004 is still being collected, the trend towards an increase in STIs like chlamydia and gonorrhea seems to have continued.

"When I was 16 I had unprotected sex," says Jonathan, a 21-year-old political science student at the University of Western Ontario. "I knew the person I was with but I also knew they had been with other people, and for the longest time … I didn't get tested."

Although he was fairly positive he didn't have AIDS or HIV, he says that eventually he felt he had to get tested to be 100 per cent sure whether or not he had another STI.

So last year, he booked an appointment with Student Health Services at Western and finally got tested.

"I felt that I really needed to know, not only for myself but for anyone I'm going to have sex with - it's really important that I know even if there's nothing I could do about it," he says.

After a long, nerve wracking time in the waiting room, Jonathan was finally called in for his results.

They were negative.

"I think most people reach a point when they wise up," says Jonathan. "But there's a whole lot of people who don't."

In reaction to the increasing STI trend, the Middlesex-London Health Unit launched a condom awareness campaign targeted at young people aged 18 to 24 in November. Posters were mounted on buses and bus shelters, on campus at Western and Fanshawe College and in some local restaurants and bars.

"If you're gonna get laid … make sure it's not to rest," warns the bright orange poster with a picture of a condom. Boldly displayed on the red poster, along with another picture of a condom, is the tagline, "Chlamydia: hard to say, easy to catch!"

Photo by Krista McFadden

Young adults were asked for input on colour, layout and message of the posters.

Both say: "use a condom!"

"We felt that dealing with the behaviour that would reduce the rate was better than just pounding out the message that STIs are on the rise," says Bonnie Lynn Wright, manager of sexual health at the Middlesex-London Health Unit, of the focus on condoms.

Wright says the posters were designed with the input of 18- to 24-year-olds in mind. The health unit passed out questionnaires and interviewed young adults in the community to get feedback on the style and messages of the posters.

She says that so far the feedback on the campaign has been positive. "It was an incredibly effective campaign," Wright says. "Negative comments were incredibly few and positive comments have been good … so the message really got out there."

But for some students at Western the campaign needs to be more than just condom awareness to make a real impact on the sexual behaviour of young adults.

"I think that anytime sex becomes just about condoms there's a problem because you both alienate your audience and you limit the scope of what that (sexual health) discourse actually looks like," says Grace.

While he says the condom campaign has an important role in increasing awareness in young adults, he feels it needs to be part of a larger discussion about sexual health.

"I think most young people understand what a condom is and they understand its use, so that's why I say you really need to get underneath the issue - it's not that people don't know that condoms exist, it's a deeper question of why they're not using them or why they're afraid to talk about it," he says.

Despite Grace's concerns, he says he's encouraged to hear that the health unit sought input from young people.

In fact, the health unit staff members were so encouraged by the positive response to the posters that they decided to assemble a working group of Western students to discuss strategies for the second phase of the campaign.

"In my experience, pregnancy is a much bigger concern for people our age than contracting an STI," says Courtney Richardson, a 22-year-old Western student who participated in the working group.

Richardson says that alcohol is usually a factor when her friends have STI scares, although she says most of the time her friends are safe.

"I just feel like it's like drinking and driving; it just doesn't happen … I really don't feel afraid," she says. "But that could just be because of my own sexual behaviour. I don't feel like I'm putting myself at risk, but I know a lot of people that are."

Jonathan says, besides poor judgment when alcohol is involved, people think they can easily tell if the person they are having sex with has an STI.

"It's not that people think, "I can't catch it," it's that people think that others don't have it," says Jonathan. He feels that young people are complacent because they just don't realize how often STIs occur.

He says the best way to promote awareness and prompt behavioural changes in young adults is to relate the statistics directly to their own lives. While the statistics should not be ignored, they have to be understood to be effective.

"I think a good message would be to have something like, especially if it was aimed at university students, 'in a class of 100 people, chances are half of you have an STI'," Jonathan says.

And while there are young adults who may not be aware about the prevalence of STIs, there are some who are making it their mission to get the message out.

"I think the health unit is doing something that needs to be done," says Alexxa Abi-Jaoude, a health science student at Western who is helping with the second phase of the condom campaign. "It needs to be more in-your-face again because I feel like a lot of times once you get to be this age, people assume that you know, so nothing is really done to keep you thinking about it."

Photo by Krista McFadden

Alexxa Abi-Jaoude says people need to be reminded about the importance of condoms.

Abi-Jaoude, along with some other students from Western, led the working group for the second phase of the campaign.

"I think the perception of condom use needs to be changed; it needs to be the norm instead of individuals choosing. Like, you put on your seatbelt when you get into the car, you put on a condom before you have sex," she says.

Abi-Jaoude also mentioned that one of the reasons the STI stats are on the rise is that long-term couples stop using condoms after a while.

"I think a lot of the problem is the minute the girl goes on birth control a lot of couples stop using condoms … Nobody seems to think that anything could happen," she says.

While there are several reasons university students say they stop using condoms, many say it's important to bring the issue to light, so that they can make educated and informed decisions.

"I just feel like if more people knew that it was a concern, especially on campus, that they would be more afraid," says Richardson. "Because what else is going to do it?"

While the health unit's campaign has been creating a buzz around town, Wright says it will take some time before it can be considered a success or not.

"Unfortunately the outcome that we're looking for, which is a reduction in the STI rate, isn't going to happen overnight," she says.