A North Vancouver sexual health clinic is one of the dozens at risk of closing across B.C. if they don’t get financial help from the province.
The clinic is part of Options for Sexual Health, a non-profit organization providing sexual and reproductive health care, including birth control, STI and cervical screening, pregnancy testing and pregnancy options counselling.
Options for Sexual Health is asking the province for $800,000 in emergency funding that would allow 15 of their 30 directly managed clinics to remain open, said executive director Tiffany Melius.
“We’ve been running deficit budgets the last few years, and we just can’t afford to do that anymore. It’s a risk that we can no longer afford to take,” Melius said.
The Options board of directors sent a letter to Premier David Eby in early December asking for the emergency funds and a commitment to increase their core funding to continue offering services through B.C.
Melius said it would cost $1.5 million to keep all of the clinics across B.C. running at normal operations.
The funding would help increase nurse wages to market levels, she said. Nurses working in Options for Sexual Health clinics earn 35 per cent less than what they would in a BC Nurses’ Union job, Melius said.
“So part of the closures is potentially closing a clinic to increase the wages of staff at another clinic,” she said. “What the funding would allow us to do is keep all of the clinics open as well as increase those wages to market levels.”
The Ministry of Health said in a statement they and the Provincial Health Services Authority continue to work with Options for Sexual Health and other partners to find a pathway forward to support the delivery of care.
Sexual health services critical to North Shore
Melius describes the problem as “two-fold” on the North Shore if the clinic closes.
People will have to travel farther to access the same services and barriers may arise for those who are from vulnerable communities.
This could include newcomers to Canada, people from the 2SLGBTQ+ community and youth who don’t feel comfortable accessing care through their family doctor, a pharmacist or haven’t had positive interactions in public health units, Melius said.
“When these closures happen, usually the ones who are most affected are the ones who need it most,” she said. “They may not be a huge number of the patients that we see, but if they have nowhere to go, then that number is a really critical number.”
Melius said there are four other Vancouver Coastal Health clinics for sexual health services across the North Shore – three of them for youth only – but the Options clinic is needed for its low-barrier accessibility.
When Melius moved to Canada over a decade ago, she used the Options for Sexual Health North Vancouver clinic when she needed it most.
As Melius was waiting to be eligible for MSP and on the job search, she had few options in accessing low-cost contraception.
“By the time I got here, I was sort of low income. I couldn’t afford to go back to Australia,” Melius said. “Coming to a new country and being newly single, access to the Options clinic was really helpful for me in accessing lower cost contraception than what it would be if I had to pay to see a family doctor or walk-in clinic.”
The North Vancouver Options clinic is on the second floor of the Parkgate Community Health Centre on Banff Court, and is open Wednesdays from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The clinic has been operating since 1970 and serves 320 people a year.
Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah, co-director of policy and advocacy at Action Canada for Sexual Health & Rights, said the risk of clinics closing shows there are still gaps in sexual, reproductive health care in the country.
“Sexual health centres and clinics, in my humble option, are at the front lines of providing lifesaving services to a variety of people,” Owusu-Akyeeah said. “If it’s more difficult for people by virtue of where they are located, it sends a particular message that you need to be lucky to live in a place where you can access something that’s supposed to be a basic right, which is your access to health care.”
Options for Sexual Health is giving the province a deadline of Jan. 31 to respond to their request, Melius said. If a solution is not found, clinics could close by April 1.
The clinic is urging people to contact their local MLAs and share their stories on the non-profit’s website.
“The decision right now is with the government, and so if the MLAs know about it and they’re talking about it, there’s more chance that we’re going to get that funding we’re asking for.”
Abby Luciano is the Indigenous and civic affairs reporter for the North Shore News. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
