Educators target chat rooms
A peak health body hopes to continue to run sexual health campaigns in online chat rooms, following a successful six-month trial.
The Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) released the results of its Netreach trial this week, which included using trained peer educators from every state except NSW and attracting the attention of 460 Gaydar users.
The majority of men who sought out the educators were referred to sexual health clinics, AIDS councils and medical practitioners for further consultation.
Ian Rankin, AFAO president, said there was some initial resistance to the educators’ presence, but that dissipated quickly.
We’re using people familiar with these internet chat rooms and these cultures, so they entered in a respectful way. The same strategy has worked for us over the years in bars and saunas and Fair Day.
Once people were comfortable it wasn’t a high-pitched sales job, they were able to have a private chat and ask questions they may not otherwise ask their GP or friends, he said.
The peer educators, known as outreachers, can be recognised by an .ac suffix on their profile name, which Gaydar restricts to those authorised by the program.
Nearly a third of respondents came from rural and regional areas of Queensland and Tasmania.
It was interesting that there was such a large response from rural guys, Rankin said. For them it was a rare opportunity to access service like that.
AFAO is keen to expand the program, both into other regions and other mediums like instant messaging.
We’re in the market for health promotion, we’ll go anywhere to encourage good sexual health, Rankin said.
Nick Corrigan, ACON director of community health, told Sydney Star Observer the health body would be studying the pilot results next week for consideration in their 2007-08 business plan.
We’re looking for ways to increase our online presence with a range of strategies, he said. This trial was particularly time-intensive so we wanted to wait for the results and make sure it’s effective.
