Mystery shoppers check out sexual health services
Getting interested in sex is part of growing up so getting reliable, easy-to-understand information about sex, relationships and sexual health should be simple. But is it? Are sexual health services as young person-friendly as they should be?
The people who run Warwickshire’s ‘Respect Yourself’ campaign want to find out. They have recruited nine ‘mystery shoppers’ to test out just how easy to access and user-friendly the available information and support services really are.
The mystery shopping project is centred on Nuneaton & Bedworth but could be rolled out to other parts of the county later on. The local volunteers, aged 16 to 20, are all good communicators, confident they can keep their cool during covert mystery shopping exercises. None of them can be named, at this stage, for fear of blowing their cover.
Between them they will visit up to 24 local services over the next three months, looking for help with issues like sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy scares and emergency contraception. They will also be finding out whether contraception is readily available to young people, and easy to find, in their area.
The volunteers - three young men and six women - came up with the various scenarios themselves and are clear about what they hope to find. "We are looking for friendly people offering good customer service," said one. "They should be non-judgemental," said another. "Access should be easy and the environment discreet," said a third.
One or two admitted to be slightly nervous but most were looking forward to ‘thinking on their feet’ and doing valuable research on behalf of young people like themselves.
After six weeks’ training all were eager to get on with the job. "We have learned a lot - now we get to test it," said one. "We need to find out if the help out there for young people is any good."“This is an opportunity for teenagers to meet new people, learn new skills and have their say,” said Helen Fielden, Respect Yourself Campaign Coordinator.
“What’s more they can contribute to a research project that could really help young people find the information and sexual health support services they need, without difficulty or embarrassment.”
She added: ”Training and support is provided but the volunteers are giving up quite a lot of their free time to do this.
We can’t thank them enough. It is voluntary work so there are no wages but we will be paying the mystery shoppers’ travel expenses.”Helen finished by saying there was no intention to ‘name or shame’ any service. The mystery shoppers’ findings will be shared with individual organisations. Most, she said, were eager to find out what the young people think of their services.