February 15, 2024

New project aims to expand access to sexual and reproductive health care in South King County

Image by mrsiraphol on Freepik

Starting this February, Dr. Arianna Means (Assistant Professor, Global Health) and Chloe Morozoff (PhD Student, Global Health) will work in partnership with Public Health—Seattle & King County (PHSKC) to optimize sexual and reproductive health care (SRH) for patients, particularly English Language Learners and uninsured individuals who encounter barriers to accessing healthcare, in South King County, WA.

The new project aims to describe the landscape of SRH services and patient preferences for care in South King County and generate suggested implementation solutions to improve health equity while making efficient use of limited resources. By capturing the learnings of local service providers and advice of SRH subject matter experts, as well as the preferences of patients, the study team can identify existing strengths in service provision, key gaps, and tailored improvements to the delivery of STI, HIV, and contraceptive services.

Findings from this project will be helpful for planning and advocacy, as gaps and recommendations are based on synthesized viewpoints of numerous South King County community members, including service providers and patients. Data collected in this study may also be used in future analyses to predict how changes in service availability could affect patient flow and demand for services.

This project has potential to impact local WACh populations by improving access and quality of contraceptive services to women. By improving STI testing and treatment methods, STI infection rates and racial and ethnic disparities in STI burden among adolescents and adults may be reduced. The project is expected to end in January 2025. We look forward to sharing future updates.