Troubled glbt youth in Canterbury will be more at risk of physical and mental illness following the planned closure of a Christchurch youth health centre, according to the NZ AIDS Foundation. The 198 Youth Health Centre Christchurch's 198 Youth Health Centre, established in 1995 to assist people between the ages of 10 and 25 years, will close its doors on April 30th due to a lack of funding. Despite calls for District Health Boards and Minister of Health Tony Ryall to step in no commitments to funding the Centre have emerged. "Young people have disproportionately high rates of STIs and suicide [and] marginalised young people, like gay and bisexual youth, are even more at risk of sexual and mental ill-health and also have lower rates of accessing health care from a GP," says the NZAF Director HIV Prevention and Communications, Simon Harger-Ford. "Closing the 198 Youth Health Centre means there may well be more young people with STIs [which] will go untreated for longer," he says. Last year, a study published by the University of Auckland found that same/both-sex-attracted students had greater difficulties than opposite-sex-attracted students in accessing healthcare, especially for sexual, reproductive and emotional health. Harger-Ford says lack of a facility such as the 198 Centre will create "enormous" future social and fiscal burdens.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 16th March 2010 - 12:18am