What do strengthened, youth-centred sexual health services look like for youth and service providers in BC?

Youth Sexual Health Gaps in BC

In BC, we continue to see elevated rates of STIs, sexual violence, unplanned pregnancies and early age parenting among youth (ages 15-29 years) outside major metropolitan centres - alongside limited access to safe, non-judgemental, and youth-centred sexual health services.

Despite a number of landmark policy changes in BC and across Canada to support youth sexual and reproductive health access (e.g. free contraception, Mifegymiso, broadened scope of practice for pharmacists, nurses, and nurse practitioners) over the last few years, there remains concerning gaps in youth sexual and reproductive health services in smaller urban areas and rural and remote communities, with disproportionate gaps for youth with intersecting, marginalized social identities (e.g., 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, Indigenous youth, newcomer youth, racialized youth).

Project Background

With funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR),Options for Sexual Health and the UBC Sexual Health Evaluation Team partnered to work with local youth and providers in several communities across BC to map youth sexual health service gaps and understand how services could be improved moving forward. Rural, remote, and underserved communities were the priority focus of the project.

Options for Sexual Health currently operates over 30 clinics across BC and supports additional affiliate clinics run by local First Nations communities and Northern Health Authority. Some clinics are stand alone, while others are integrated within youth spaces, public health, or primary care. As of early 2025, Options launched strategic planning to inform more sustainable sexual and reproductive health service delivery in BC.

This project aimed to bring youth and provider voices directly into this process through asking youth and providers how they want to access / offer youth sexual health services in their community & what strengthened, youth-centred and locally-designed sexual health services could look like! Their ideas and insights directly shaped the development of a youth-centred service delivery model.

The Evaluation Phase of this project has now been completed, and the project team has begun working with partners in two rural communities to plan how this model can implemented and evaluated in their contexts - starting in September 2026.