Family Planning Association is ‘filling a growing need’

Press, 16 July 1982, Page 13

Family Planning Association is ‘filling a growing need’

Nothing fazes staff at the Christchurch Family Planning Centre. Patients have ranged from an upset nine-year-old with a vaginal infection to a 72-year-old experiencing dryness during intercourse.

Another case was that of an 82-year-old. who went to the clinic for a breast cancer check. Both elderly women had been been refused help by doctors; one being told that she was too old for intercourse, the other that a check was unnecessary at her age.

These reactions from family doctors, and the fear of censure, have boosted the numbers attending the centre’s clinic in the Arts Centre, at the Montreal-Wor-cester Street comer. The cases described are not everyday examples but they do illustrate the wide range of services provided by the family planning clinic. But the centre’s 50 staff, most of whom are parttimers and volunteers, are worried about the future of such services, which they regard as vital. They are also worried about the effect that threatened cuts to the organisation’s grant will have on the community.

Last year 28,326 patients attended the clinic, not to

mention all those who benefited from its community education and counselling programme. What started “as a response to a need” has grown as the . need has grown, says the city centre’s education officer, Mrs Sue Billing. > Those needs are certainly varied. One minute the clinic staff will be assisting with family planning; the next, helping someone understand and cope with pre-menstrual tension. Family planning is a major function of the clinic, but of no less importance is its detection of venereal disease cases, or its regular and “strongly recommended” cancer checks.

“The clinic is responsible for positive things,” says Mrs Billing, “such as preventive and health care, smear tests, referrals — help for both men and. women. We work for the client’s needs, and any needs are valid.” . According to Mrs Billing, a talk, or even a routine examination, can uncover a problem that has lain dormant and festering for 20 years.

"You may pick up a victim of incest at age 16, who has never divulged the incident to her husand — even after having a family of her own.”

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These people are often very relieved that they have told someone about their unspoken agony. “We enable them to help themselves. Everyone at the clinic provides on-going counselling. We may help someone who, in her past, has had an abortion or adopted out a child and is having problems about it today.” People should never stop growing and learning about their sexuality, says Mrs Billing. The clinic educates them to cope with changes within relationships and within their own bodies. Mrs Billing feels it is over to the person who is pregnant to make a decision about the future of the child. “Our responsibility is to make sure that she is fully informed in her decision and supported by counselling and referral.” Counsellors do see a few girls who are deciding whether to become sexually active. They explain the options but do not try to force a particular view. As the clinic counsels, so does it educate. "Sex education starts the moment you

MARTINE CUSACK

are born. It is a continuing thing through life, and you need regular check-ups,” says Mrs Billing. It is best to inform people about sex so they can make their own decision, she says. "If people decide to have sexual relationships they must know about the consequences of contraception. A sexual relationship is serious business.

“At Family Planning we believe that every child should be a wanted child and that people do not have the right to pass on venereal disease.”

She believes that a person should respect another’s sexuality and not make use of him or her for selfish purposes. The centre administers its educational role from both inside and outside the clinic. In-clinic education includes professional “updates” for all staff, the training of student and postgraduate nurses, doctors and patients. Clinic staff and volunteers also work in the community. The local polytechnic, hospitals, schools and community groups often ask the

clinic’s staff to teach people about the many aspects of sexuality. The clinic is one of the few places that is . willing to accept problem patients or patients who cannot pay for their visits. It also caters to the needs of a growing number of migrants, people from rural areas and those who flat in the central city area, many of whom have no family doctor. But the clinic says that general practitioners are not losing out. The clinic encourages its patients to attend their own doctors for general health problems. The clinic also liaises with other health, welfare and education organisations such as the Community Mental Health Team and Citizens Advice Bureau. Into all this work, goes a lot of research, and the clinic is involved in many studies, projects and surveys. It also assists with research into pre-menstrual tension and menopausal fertility. But to carry out all these functions the clinic needs funding, something that staff at the clinic feel is sorely lacking. Apart from accepting the Health Department subsidy, which the Christchurch clinic

depends on to keep services going, it raises ftlnds through local grants, patients fees, voluntary donations and subscriptions. The clinic’s other big “saver” is the amount of voluntary input by staff.

Yet this money has to support not one local clinic, but five. As well as the city clinic, the Family Planning Association runs clinics at Hornby, Kaiapoi, Lyttelton and Rangiora.

For all of these centres the aim is clear, says Mrs Billing: “To accept each and every person as a person of worth. And to care for that person while making him or her aware of responsibilities.”