Sexual health care in British Columbia: a model of service delivery.

The Sexual Health Program at British Columbia Rehabilitation Society has been providing comprehensive sexual health care to people with spinal cord injuries for the past 20 years. The focus of this paper is to describe this model of service delivery to nurses who may be interested in implementing similar models of service delivery to other health care settings. Sexual health care occurs within the context of the readiness, values and beliefs of the client. The Sexual Health Clinician provides a continuum of consumer-driven services to assist individuals, couples and family members to understand and manage the sexual outcomes of spinal cord injury. As part of the client team, the Sexual Health Clinician provides comprehensive assessment, education, and management for clients and staff. Assessment involves clarifying sexual concerns, establishing present sexual function status using the Sexual Assessment Framework, and exploring past functioning and partnership issues. Concerns are normalized, validated, and support is provided to the client and/or family. This paper will assist nurses to identify the benefits of having a Sexual Health Program as part of spinal cord injury nursing care and be able to identify principles of sexual health care practice that may be able to be incorporated into their present clinical setting.