A sexual health clinic is to be opened on the university campus within the next few days as part of an outreach programme on sexual education for young adults, the Director of Health Promotion told a parliamentary committee yesterday.

Charmaine Gauci briefed members of the Social Affairs Committee on the work being carried out on sexual health.

Sexual health, she said, was defined by healthy relationships and people who were in happy relationships.

However, it was all too frequently associated with youths, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases when these were, in fact, only a small part of the scenario.

She said the educational campaigns being conducted were balanced and aimed at inclusivity, given that the principles applied to all types of relationships.

Since September, a drive has been carried out by the department of health to increase capacity and enable GU services to be diffused to the community.

There was still a stigma attached to accessing the services of the GU clinic so sexual education and treatment outreach was imperative. Guidelines for educators on personal and social education in all schools had been created to enable them to approach the issues in appropriate ways. Help for parents was also being compiled.

Church schools, said Dr Gauci, were somewhat reluctant to allow the dissemination of this type of information but gradually their co-operation was on the rise.

A process to increase sexual awareness in children with learning and intellectual disabilities was being developed.

Through the use of the traditional, mainstream and social media, the department was seeking to diffuse knowledge and awareness of the different types of sexual health issues and had integrated its operations into Mater Dei Hospital to further remove any stigmatisation of the use of the services.

The response on social media has been encouraging and had opened the way for research and sampling.

Citing research carried out among 1,173 adults between 16 and 40 years old, she said the vast majority obtained information on sexuality at school, with the home faring very poorly. Families seemed to be at a loss on how to tackle the subject and education had to be targeted to this sector.