Options for Sexual Health clinics to stay open for another year
The Nanaimo Options for Sexual Health Clinic is located at #8-1599 Dufferin Crescent, open Monday to Wednesday from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm
After concerns that it would have to close 85 per cent of its clinics, Options for Sexual Health will remain open for at least another year.
In December 2024, Options for Sexual Health posted a letter on its website stating that it may have to make the tough decision of closing 85 per cent of its clinics across the province due to a lack of necessary funding from the Provincial Health Services Authority.
With a clinic in Nanaimo and across the province, Options supports about 14,000 people annually by offering free birth control, sexually transmitted infections (STI) testing and care, Pap screenings, pregnancy testing, and pregnancy options counselling.
After working with the provincial government, Options has announced that the Ministry of Health has committed in principle to maintaining funding for all clinics for the year.
CHLY spoke with Tiffany Melius, the Executive Director of Options, about the news.
She said that they received an overwhelming amount of feedback from the public when they announced the concerns around the possible closures.
“It was heartwarming and heartbreaking to hear the impact stories that people were sharing with us around what the effect would be, what the impact would be if our clinics closed,” Melius said. “We had over 250 people submit stories on that page for us. We had over 2,000 MLA letters sent by folks across the province really rallying in support of us.”
She also said it was heartwarming to see all the recognition Options staff and health care workers received in the messages.
“We know that what we do is important,” Melius said. “Our clinic nurses and staff see every day the impact that they're having, but to have that validated by the community support was really wonderful for them.”
Melius explained that while they have received the bridge funding to keep all the clinics open through the next fiscal year, a strategic review at the government level in partnership with Options will be done around the future role of Options in the sexual health landscape.
Melius said people can still support the clinics by continuing to talk to their MLAs about the importance of the clinic.
“So most of the health authorities operate some kind of sexual reproductive health service,” Melius said. “But we know that we're serving people who don't necessarily have a family doctor, or a walk-in clinic, or their community only has an ER, [or] they don't feel safe accessing services through some of those mainstream primary care providers.”
The Nanaimo Options for Sexual Health Clinic is located at #8-1599 Dufferin Crescent, open Monday to Wednesday from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.