Can a game break the taboo of healthcare professionals? Hopefully the answer is yes. In a TechTalk arranged by Compare about health gamification, a new app was presented which will make visible questions about sexuality in healthcare.
Do you know the acronym SRHR? If not, you're probably in good company, including those who really should know. The abbreviation stands for Sexual Health, Reproductive Health, Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights.
Ingrid Kihlsten works as a public health strategist within SRHR in Region Värmland and has often felt alone in these questions.
- It is difficult to convey complex messages in a pressured work environment. Hospital environment is not a playful environment and if you have to say something, it has to be damn important, because nobody really has time.
Even so, gamification might be a feasible path. In a co-creation project between Region Värmland and the innovation agency Sticky Beat, they have tried to find a solution for how SRHR should become a relevant issue in healthcare. They have started developing a new app, Sexkamppen, to shed light on the subject - mainly for healthcare professionals.
- The main aim is to make visible a holistic perspective on sexuality and how we can incorporate sexuality within health and care, says Ingrid Kihlsten.
The game is a quiz that will also be available to private individuals. In the context Ingrid Kihlsten will use the game, it is to get an open discussion going in a short time in meetings with healthcare staff.
Ingrid Kihlsten hopes that the Sexkamppen quiz will give health care a reason to look at sexuality from a more holistic perspective.
For example, more light-hearted questions, where you can anonymously guess at different answer options, should mean that the topic is addressed in a way that is not threatening. At the same time as it shows the level of knowledge. According to Ingrid Kihlsten, questions connected to sexuality are often shameful to ask even in healthcare.
Hidden reasons for care meeting
This can result in a patient making a healthcare visit with a stated reason, while the real reason is hidden. Part of Sexkampen is therefore based on healthcare staff being open and receptive to questions other than those for which patients seek help.
It could mean that a person who has recently had a heart attack also receives information about how the condition can affect sexuality and mental health.
- Then the patient knows that it is okay to talk about these questions and okay to come up with thoughts. We know that patients want to be asked questions connected to sexuality, but we also know that the staff often don't want to ask, says Ingrid Kihlsten.
Sexkampen will be available via www.sexkampen.nu from mid-December.
