Innovative sexual health clinic opens for gay men in Soho
CODE, a new sexual health service for men who have sex with men (MSM) into the harder sex scene has opened its doors at 56 Dean Street, Soho (56DS). CODE also offers non-judgmental advice on the sexualized use of recreational drugs – particularly crystal meth (Tina) and GBH/GBL (G). Other clinics are offering help with ‘club drugs,’ the Kobler Clinic, part of the same Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust, runs one such service. 56 Dean Street says the CODE clinic is a rare partnership between the NHS and the voluntary sector, working with Antidote, London Friend’s LGBT drug and alcohol counselling service. A survey of CODE patients showed that 1/3 have had unprotected anal intercourse. Most men at the CODE clinic had taken Tina, cocaine, G, poppers and mephedrone, 1/3 were injecting 20% had a sexually transmitted infection, which is high compared to other sexual health clinics. According to the CODE Team, the service “is an exciting and controversial new clinic, targeted at gay men who are into harder sex, or perhaps the fetish scene and who may also use drugs during sex. The Tuesday evening clinic offers information, support, sexual health screens, harm reduction advice and referrals of men who may feel uncomfortable or unwilling to discuss drugs (including steroids) and harder sex openly with their sexual health team.” 08 Winter 2012
Why could the CODE approach be seen as controversial? Leigh Chislett, 56 Dean Street’s clinic manager responds, “we are targeting people who have hard sex and use drugs. We are not about changing people’s behaviour, unless they want to change, we don’t say you shouldn’t be doing fisting, if you are, we say, maybe you could do it more safely.”
“I think people are unaware of the scale of needle use out there – two thirds of the men we see have injected.” The linkage between drugs and hard sex has been getting more closely associated on some scenes says David Stuart, Antidote’s Education, Training and Outreach Manager and the use of Tina and G continues to increase in London. In 2004 he says it was rare be asked about these drugs: in 2011 39% of the 700 people Antidote had in treatment reported crystal meth as the primary drug of choice - G was the primary drug for 27% in 2011. Increases in club drug referrals from accident and emergency departments or sexual health clinics have gone from 6% of the case load to 60%. ‘We want to help people re-engage in sober sex, make safer choices when under the influence and negotiate boundaries when hooking up