When Alli Matson came to the university two years ago to work at the University Health Center, she found one major flaw in the center.
“I noticed we didn’t have health center publications on campus focusing on the issue of STIs,” said Matson, who is now the coordinator of sexual health programs at the health center.
To combat that lack of information, the health center launched an entire “STI Public Education” campaign this semester. The campaign was put together last year, and the posters began lining the health center walls and shuttle buses earlier this month.
“Our goal is to educate students on STIs and let them know that they can seek treatment at the health center,” Matson said.
Though the health center does not keep track of the number of students treated for STIs, employees noticed three diseases were particularly prevalent on the campus: herpes, HPV and chlamydia. So the health center, while it strives to educate students about overall sexual health, is focusing primarily on these three diseases in its year-long campaign.
Matson said she hopes to expand the campaign to the Department of Resident Life and the Greek community in the hopes that every resident assistant and house manager will eventually be educated to assist with the campaign.
“We wanted to come up with more attractive materials, not just the standard black and gold,” she said.
Signs with messages reading, “Well, what do you know?” and “Get tested for STIs and use protection,” are the most common of the campaign materials. Matson said she hopes such statements will prompt students to question how informed they are about sexual health.
Matson added that the final stage of expanding the campaign will involve the media – including radio and newspapers – in creating publicity.
“The process is not necessarily hard,” Matson said, “but time-consuming. We want to make sure we are giving the right message to students and letting them know that treatment is available.”
The health center provides confidential treatment – such as medications and wart removal – for most STI cases. More severe illnesses, such as HIV, are referred to non-university doctors so a whole team, including social workers, can assist in treating the case, Matson added.
“As much as we love the student body, we don’t want to see all of the student bodies in the health center,” she said. “We are hopeful that people will read the messages and really take them to heart.”
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