Sexual content in Australian crisis telehealth

Abstract

An increasing number of contacts to Australian crisis helplines include issues related to sexual wellbeing. This research is an exploratory investigation into the diversity of sexual content received by crisis telehealth services, and equally, clinicians were asked to reflect upon their level of comfort and competence to support these presentations. Twelve Australian-based crisis telehealth clinicians participated in a semi-structured interview. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed via thematic analysis. Four primary themes were evident: (1) clinician experience of telehealth, (2) the impact of disingenuous calls, (3) factors influencing clinician comfort to address sexological presentations, and (4) factors influencing clinician competence to address sexological presentations. Findings highlighted that crisis telehealth clinicians hold clinical responsibility for a diverse range of presentations of a sexual nature. These research findings have strong implications for ongoing workforce development and clinician wellbeing, as participants were largely self- reliant in developing professional comfort and competence to support sexual content. Due to the increasing prevalence of clients experiencing concerns of a sexual nature, it is critical that service provisions and overall quality of interventions account for the breadth of sexual presentations.