Workshop: E2 - A Collaborative Approach to Sexually Transmitted Disease Detection in School-Based Settings

This workshop will be held on Tuesday, June 28th from 11:15am to 12:30pm in Ballroom G.

I will be presenting some interesting findings on a great collaboration project here in Illinois. The abstract is entitled, “A Collaborative Approach to Sexually Transmitted Disease Detection in School Based Settings.” It deals with increasing chlamydia screening at Illinois school-based health centers (SBHC). The Illinois Department of Public Health, STD Program, the Illinois Department of Human Services, School-Based/Linked Health Program and the Bureau of Community Nursing all wanted to work on this issue, so we set up a conference call with staff from 44 SBHCs and provided some background information and we discussed barriers to screening and ideas on how to increase screening. During the teleconference calls, the SBHC staff came up with some really creative ideas and strategies to increase screening such as advertising STI services around homecoming and prom to increase awareness and also working with gate keepers at the school such as coaches and counselors to advertise STI services at the school. I will be also sharing with you the outcome of this collaborative project, which turned out to be very productive.

Rich Zimmerman BS, MA
STD Counseling and Testing Coordinator
Illinois Department of Human Services