“Your Health Matters” Campaign Launched

Published: Thursday, October 24, 2013

To celebrate International Day of the Girl, on 11th October 2013, The Y Factor, NWCI's youth initiative, launched Your Health Matters, a health information campaign run by and for young women that aims to build positive attitudes to young women and their health.

The Y Factor was concerned that although young women’s health and their bodies are often discussed in public debates, the actual experiences of young women are usually completely absent from these discussions. Your Health Matters gives a voice to young women to talk about their experiences with health services in this country and promote a discussion about it.

An online Y Factor survey of 350 young people revealed a number of significant barriers for young people to access healthcare and a lack of knowledge about their rights when it comes to doctors and dealing with healthcare staff.

The Y Factor survey uncovered some quite unsettling information about young people’s experience of health services. 3 out of 4 identified cost as a reason they would be reluctant to go to a doctor, hospital or other clinic; while one third are reluctant to go due to fear that they will not be treated well. A third also say they cannot discuss embarrassing or sensitive topics with their doctor, and only half know what is and isn’t confidential between them and their doctor.

Your Health Matters provides easily accessible information for young women to have a better understanding of what they should expect in terms of health information and health service provision. We want to encourage young people to get involved in the campaign, to take and discuss our information leaflets and to visit our website and our Facebook page, where we have put up lots of useful information.

Your Health Matters is envisaged as a long term campaign which will also seek to engage with health care professionals to build positive relationships between young women and healthcare providers and improve health service delivery.

For more information, visit www.yfactor.ie