The youth of Nunavut, the largest, northernmost and newest territory of Canada, want to know more about sexual health. They want to know how their wellness may be affected by sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and how to guard their wellbeing against unwanted pregnancies, sexual abuse, and unhealthy relationships. That’s according to the Government of Nunavut’s Sexual Health Framework for Action, for 2012 to 2017, the goal of which is ‘to improve and maintain sexual health in the territory.’
The Kamatsiaqtut helpline has been live for 11 years, and when kids call, they often want to talk about sexual health. The action plan, which was tabled in a legislative assembly this month by Keith Peterson, Nunavut’s minister of health and social services, said that the focus of those calls have touched on relationships, substance abuse, sexual abuse and other sexual issues. You may be wondering why these children don’t turn to their parents or teachers for this advice and information, but community wellness meetings or conferences have found that parents don’t talk to their children about family planning or birth control, or give certain schools permission to include sex education.
During consultations, Nunavut’s sex education was described as “ineffective,” and the evidence certainly backs up that claim. The rate of STI is increasing in the territory and there is limited Nunavut-specific sexual health education material available to community health representatives and schools. These comments were cited in the sexual health action plan, which also noted that ‘young people do not know how to say no to sex,’ adding, ‘a repeated barrier to addressing these key areas has been the lack of sexual health education and training opportunities for community health educators.’
There are several themes included in the plan, such as health promotion, health protection, knowledge and evaluation, and leadership, capacity and collaboration. By developing a sexual health education programme, giving a resource kit to health and education representatives in each community and providing increased access to safer sex “supplies”, the government hopes to improve overall youth sexual health. It also calls for measures like providing more access to counselling in health centres, and partnering with the Nunavut suicide prevention strategy to develop and implement a programme to deal with sexual violence and abuse.
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