There’s more than one way to seek sexual health services in Nelson.
Interior Health offers dedicated sexual health services and programs. Jana Abetkoff, executive director, population & public health describes Interior Health’s clinics as safe and accessible. They are open on weekdays.
One can also access sexual health care through the Options sexual health clinic. A community-based clinic that grew out of Planned Parenthood. They’ve been operating in Nelson for nearly 40 years. They emphasize that the care is given from a feminist, pro-choice*, sex positive perspective. They are currently operating out of Apple Tree Maternity on Lake Street. They offer drop in services on Monday evenings.
Emily Deschuymer is the clinic coordinator at Options in Nelson. She says part of their job is to ensure people know that STI testing is also available through Interior Health.
“I like to give out the other resources in the community too so people are aware that they don’t just have to come to Options like, you have other ways to get testing done.”
At the same time, she recognizes that Options offers a different model that some people may prefer.
“If our regular healthcare system was covering all the needs of everybody, we wouldn’t exist. We wouldn’t exist as a clinic if people felt comfortable walking into their GP’s office and talking about this. We wouldn’t exist if people felt like they could ask all of these questions to the public health nurse. But we do exist and that speaks to the reality that people want a different space to go to that provides that inclusive trauma informed care…We just try to make sure that we have a little bit of a softer approach so that people who maybe have had some traumatic experiences in their lives either in their sexual life, or in even clinical visits, that can happen.”
“I think that it would make sense for the health authorities to try and roll our services in with theirs, except for the fact that there’s a lot of people that don’t want to walk into the public health buildings. And so options has always been kind of viewed as that other place that people can go. We have a different model. So unless that model can be built in in a way that covers all the bases that we cover, which is one step of it, but the other step is getting that word out. We have a reputation. We’ve been in the community almost 40 years and people people know what we, what, we’re all about.”
Research conducted in Canada has found that some LGBTQI+ people, sex workers, and people who use drugs report experiencing stigma when accessing sexual health care. Researchers also found that some participants valued services that felt more anonymous, welcoming, and non-judgmental. .
“Who are the people that are sitting maybe on the margins, or who have barriers to care who need that little extra support to come in? So, I hope that everybody feels comfortable walking through our doors…We also see people who are part of the LGBTQIS+ community. And I really hope that folks in that community do feel like they’re safe in our clinic because the reality is is that their lives are often made a lot more challenging in the health-care system, if they run into people who have biases or no experience in supporting folks from that community, so that is something that Options has always made very clear in their mission that we want to make sure that we include all people.”
Deschuymer says youth often come to Options for information on their sexual health.
“A lot of times we get some young people who just have a lot of questions about birth control, what type of birth control works for them. Kind of what to expect if they haven’t been sexually active yet. Also just providing information on how to use a condom or what consent looks like, including verbal and non-verbal”
11 Options for sexual health clinics have closed across BC, including one in Trail.
In the 2024-2025 Fiscal Year, Options saw about 14,000 patients in their directly managed sexual health clinics. They are now down to 19 directly managed clinics.
Deschuymer says the closures are the unfortunate result of a funding issue.
“So it’s basically just a gap in funding that didn’t increase for years. And it got to kind of like the critical point where something had to be done…Our provincial office has worked very hard to try and mitigate the fallout of this. And the Ministry of Health did step in and agreed to provide us funding, which is fantastic. Unfortunately, it had gone a little too long without the increases in funding. So, even with the support from the Ministry of Health, they had to close 11 clinics in the province… It’s very unfortunate.”
Abetkoff of Interior Health says she recognizes the effects of losing the Options for Sexual Health clinic in Trail. She acknowledges the closure may have been difficult for some community members. Interior Health has since established a sexual and reproductive health clinic in Trail.
The Options clinic in Nelson remains open with the help of dedicated volunteers and local doctors who give their time after hours.
“…Opened in 1988. So it’s been almost 40 years that we’ve been operating in the Nelson area. I do think that we have quite a presence here, and we have a lot of doctors who are really supportive of what we do. We have currently four, going on five doctors who rotate through working our Monday night clinics, they’re amazing people. And for them to work their whole day and then come and work an evening clinic and it can be pretty busy at our clinic … From what I understand, the Nelson Clinic is one of the busiest clinics outside of the Lower Mainland.”
Deschuymer says she is not worried about the Nelson clinic closing any time soon, but that there has been a shift in what they can offer. She predicts an uptick in people seeking services at the Nelson location as a result of the Trail closure.
“I don’t get to see all the stats necessarily, but we definitely like had a patient in last night who came from Trail because that clinic has closed. I think that we will see a little bit more traffic. Our clinic has been affected somewhat as well. We were very fortunate to stay open, but we’ve had to drop down to one nurse instead of two… We likely will have to turn some more people away, we’ve seen a little bit of that. We had to turn two people away last night. We only have so much capacity with one nurse, a doc, and two and a half hour clinic. We do our best to see everybody that we can.”
“I do feel like we are secure in the community at this stage. But there’s been a lot of changes over the last few years…and we’re just trying to do the best we can with what we’ve been offered.”
