Online registry that connects Nova Scotians to sexual health care scrambling after losing funding - Action News
Home WebMail Wednesday, November 13, 2024, 03:51 AM | Calgary | -1.0°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Nova Scotia

Online registry that connects Nova Scotians to sexual health care scrambling after losing funding

An online registry and support line that helps Nova Scotians access sexual, gender and reproductive health care is facing an uncertain future after their funding from Health Canada ran out last month.

Health Canada gave SUGAR Health $500K for website, support line in November, but funding wasn't renewed

A person wearing blue medical gloves holds up a swab and a tube.
Sexual Health Nova Scotia's SUGAR Health is an online portal that helps people navigate and access health services like sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, cervical screening, gender-affirming care and abortion care. (Craig Chivers/CBC)

An online registry and support line that helps Nova Scotians access sexual, gender and reproductive health care is facing an uncertain future after its funding from Health Canada ran out last month.

Sexual Health Nova Scotia launched its SUGAR Health website in Nov. 2023, after receiving just over $500,000 from Health Canada's Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Fund in the spring.

The registry was the first of its kind in Nova Scotia, providing an online portal to help people navigate and access health services like sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, cervical screening, gender-affirming care and abortion care.

But it also provideswhat the organization calls a warmline, a chat service that gives people the option to call or text a navigator who will guide them through available services.

Leigh Heide, the project manager for SUGAR Health, said they had applied for a renewal of funding through Health Canada in December, with the understanding that the federal agency's goal was to extend funding for existing projects.

A person wearing glasses takes a selfie.
Leigh Heide is the project manager for Sexual Health Nova Scotia's SUGAR Health. (Submitted by Leigh Heide)

Theapplication was sent back, they said, and they were asked to reduce thebudget by 25 per cent and then resubmit which they did.

But theapplication was denied mid-February, less than four months after the site launched. The funding expired on March 31.

"It was very shocking. We had felt confident in our conversations with them that the goal was the extension and they were supporting us in that process," Heide told Information Morning Halifax.

"We knew there was a reduced amount of funding in the fund overall, but we were very confident about our chances, especially being only one of two Atlantic Canadian projects."

Heide said SUGAR Health has just begungaining momentum, given the short timeframe they've had.

"People are hearing about the project, getting more and more engagement through the warmline,and then is it going to just halt?" they said.

"And then on a personal level, we've got three staff that are going, 'OK, so I just don't have a job in six weeks?'"

Heide said during the first few months of operation, Nova Scotia's health-care crisis has become evident to the team, as many people don't have a family physician or nurse practitioner.

A screenshot of a website called SUGAR Health.
SUGAR Health launched their online services registry and warmline in November 2023. (SUGAR Health)

This makes accessing sexual health and reproductive services difficult, especially cervical screenings and STI testing.

"We knew about those issues. We've known, but it's become even more prominent through this project that there's a real crisis in this field."

Heide said SUGAR Health helps take away from that stress, by considering individual barriers that some people face, while providing them with theknowledge to navigate the health system effectively.

"Thinking about it in a comprehensive, holistic way is really an important piece," they said.

"And without our warmline, [SUGAR Health]is a website that people can look at on their own which again, it's a great resource but without that accompanying navigation support, it's not really the same thing."

Tammy Jarbeau, a spokesperson withHealth Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, said in an emailed statement$454,000 in time-limitedfunding was given to Sexual Health Nova Scotia from March 2023 to March 2024 to establish "a virtual provincial database of service providers" that would provide quick access to reproductive health care. The funding came from $45 million the federal government set aside for a sexual and reproductive health fund in its 2021 budget.

Though the fund was renewed for three additional years in the 2023 budget, Jarbeau said the total requests for project funding extensions "exceeded theavailablebudget."

"...based on a thorough evaluation of all project proposals, Health Canada was not able to extend funding for the SUGARHealth project," Jarbeau wrote. "Health Canada will be issuing a call for new proposals, at which time the Sexual Health Nova Scotia will have the opportunity to apply."

With files from Portia Clark

Add some good to your morning and evening.

Get the latest top stories from across Nova Scotia in your inbox every weekday.

...

The next issue of CBC Nova Scotia newsletter will soon be in your inbox.

Discover all CBC newsletters in theSubscription Centre.opens new window

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Google Terms of Service apply.