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- Title
Contraceptive Access Through School-Based Health Centers: Perceptions of Rural and Suburban Young People.
- Authors
Westbrook, Marisa; Martinez, Lisette; Mechergui, Safa; Scandlyn, Jean; Yeatman, Sara
- Abstract
Purpose: School-based health centers (SBHCs) have traditionally been concentrated in urban centers but have increasingly moved to rural and suburban settings. Adolescents living outside urban centers continue to experience barriers accessing contraceptives and reproductive health care. SBHCs are well positioned to reduce these barriers since they often offer convenient, in-school reproductive health care services. We describe the experiences of adolescents and emerging adults as they navigate access to contraceptives at SBHCs and nonschool locations in nonurban, low-income communities. Method: We interviewed 30 sexually active individuals aged 15 to 21 living in rural and suburban communities in Colorado where high school SBHCs were recently introduced. Participants reflected on their experiences with or without in-school access to sexual and reproductive health services. Results: Overall, young people supported within-school access to contraceptives, citing convenience, low cost, and greater confidentiality and privacy compared with out-of-school providers, particularly in rural areas. At the same time, findings point to the need for SBHCs to overcome adolescents' and emerging adults' misunderstanding of age requirements to access confidential contraceptive services and their remaining concerns around confidentiality in the school setting. Conclusions: Our results indicate that SBHCs in low-income rural and suburban areas provide essential contraceptive services that young people access and value. Policy makers in nonurban communities should look to the SBHC model to reduce barriers for young people accessing reproductive health care, and health care providers should work to ensure confidentiality and to correct misinformation about their right to access contraceptive services.
- Subjects
COLORADO; CONTRACEPTION; PRIVACY; HEALTH services accessibility; SCHOOL health services; SUBURBANITES; INTERVIEWING; MEDICAL care costs; ADOLESCENT health; MEDICAL ethics; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; RURAL population; REPRODUCTIVE health; SEXUAL health; REFLECTION (Philosophy); ADOLESCENCE
- Publication
Health Promotion Practice, 2022, Vol 23, Issue 3, p425
- ISSN
1524-8399
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/15248399211026612