Engaging Your State's Public Health Association - Florida's Department of Health (FLDOH) STD Programs and the Florida Public Health Association (FPHA) Promote Sexual Health

Background:
Florida's Bureau of STD (BSTD), local STD Programs and the Florida Public Health Association (FPHA) jointly identified barriers in promoting sexual health. Among those were: stagnant/reduced funding, policy/regulations, misunderstood cultural differences, and personal comfort of community, staff and leaders. Multilevel collaborative initiatives were then developed to improve sexual health outcomes.

Objective:
Showcase some successful collaborative initiatives with FPHA

Method:
Get involved, know your partners, and provide support!
BSTD and local STD Programs actively support FPHA and the STD Section through: 1) umbrella memberships, 2) encouraging attendance at FPHA meetings for training/education purposes, 3) planning BSTD Managers Meetings, back-to-back with the annual educational conference ensuring greater attendance while reducing travel expenses, and 4) involvement in collaborative initiatives.
Section members provide current, science-based, information to FPHA's Board and members through meetings, emails, newsletters, the Annual Education Conference, and FPHA's website. Members actively participate in developing FPHA's strategic plans, including the improving Sexual Health initiative.

Result:
In 2006, the STD Section gained FPHA's support to lobby successfully for an increase in mileage reimbursement.
The 2007-2008 FPHA strategic plan identified improving sexual health as its number one priority. Collaborative activities towards achieving this goal included: providing a plenary speaker on Sexuality and two workshops (“Sexuality – How To Talk About It” and “Sex & The Internet – included Florida Law Enforcement's Perspective”) for FPHA's Annual Conference – 2007. Currently planned for 2008 are: results from an online Sexual Health Survey (February) and a Sexual Health Campaign for Colleges and Universities.

Conclusion:
Through increased collaborating with FPHA, sexual health initiatives have greatly expanded the visibility and effectiveness of the BSTD Program.

Implications:
With reduced fiscal resources, creative and collaborative efforts must maximize visibility of sexual health issues. Without these efforts, funding, awareness programs and proven interventions will likely be greatly reduced, thereby negatively affecting sexual health outcomes.