Design and Sexual Health (DaSH)
How did DaSH work?
Design and Sexual Health (DaSH) was a collaboration between Dott 07 and Gateshead Primary Care Trust, who worked together on design actions that would make sexual health screening and treatment services easier to access and use. The project aimed to develop a system where people would be seen by a local service within 48 hours of contact, and where the treatment path is clearly explained and suits the user’s needs.
The team began by conducting research to understand the daily lives of the people that policy-makers hope will use the service. They then explored ways that new facilities communications and procedures could improve the use and experience of the service. Their final task was to deliver a service design blueprint covering these hard and soft issues to the district’s Primary Care Trust.
This project was carried out by Design Options, part of the technical assistance arm of Marie Stopes International, working together with Gateshead’s Sexual Health Promotions team, with support from the Centre for Design Research at Northumbria University.
The Department for Health’s National Strategy for Sexual Health and HIV suggests that users find that the services offering contraception and the diagnosis and treatment are disjointed and that they are held in locations that make them difficult to use or
make the user feel stigmatised.
Sexual health workers in Gateshead already take their contraception services out to the user – for example, workers will meet young men and women at places where they usually gather, at school, leisure centres or in their homes.
But once screening or treatment for a sexually transmitted infection is needed, Newcastle or South Shields is currently the nearest place where facilities are available. This is often a long way to travel for those without personal transport, limited time or income and so and it’s easy for people to fall through the net.
The team’s objective was to create a local service better suiting Gateshead residents so they are treated easier and quicker. The benefits of early diagnosis and treatment obviously include better health for the user, as well as a decreased risk of sexually transmitted infections being spread.
Wouldn't it be great if sexual health clinics were placed in everyday situations? Clinc areas at the back of high street fashion stores, for example, might encorage people to look after their sexual health as part of their normal lifestyle.
To design this service, the Design Options team spoke to around 40 professionals and over 1000 Gateshead citizens, with a particular focus on young people, gay and bisexual men, and other groups who find it harder to use health services. Interviews and community discussions took place to make sure the final outcome met with their expectations and preferences. Each group looked at the ideas that the design team developed and were given a chance to say how they would want their experience of going to a service to be like. Taking the information gathered at these sessions, the designers looked at how their ideas would work in reality by working alongside the people who would be putting them into practice.
This is the first time sexual health service design has been tackled in this way and it’s hoped the project will provide a good example of how to redevelop and advance other health services, both nationally and internationally. Unfriendly-by-design sexual health clinics can be unwelcoming, deterring those who really need them.
Download the design recommendations that are the outcome of the Design and Sexual Health (DaSH) project.
What next?
DaSH, led by Design Options together with Gateshead PCT and the Centre for Design Research, Northumbria University, used the latest service design techniques to develop a sexual health service blueprint for the town. The project’s founding principle was that a person’s experience of using such a service should be central to its design.
The project team’s design recommendations resulted in a blueprint for a service in which people are seen within 48 hours of first contact, the treatment pathway is clear and it meets the needs, preferences and circumstances of all users.
A reorganisation of the local health authorities means that implementing the DaSH-designed service is still in the pipeline, but the blueprints can be downloaded here.
This user-centred approach for developing sexual health services has been picked up by five other health authorities, so the project’s legacy continues. For more information, visit: Design Options.
