Scientific Meeting - 4th April 2025
Venue: NCVO Regents Wharf, 8 All Saints Street, London, N1 9RL
HYBRID Event
The meeting will be hosted by the Sexual Function and Wellbeing SIG, along with the Racially Minoritised Communities SIG
The programme aims to address current challenges in sexual health, with an emphasis on wellbeing across different demographic
Sexual Function and Wellbeing SIG - Session 1
How could a focus on sexual wellbeing help tackle contemporary challenges in sexual health? Prof Kirstin Mitchell
Sexual wellbeing in the digital age: Supporting young people to navigate pleasure, coercion and abuse. Dr Emily Setty
Sexual wellbeing during menopause transition:clinical tips and tricks. Penny Goold/ Dr Kiersten Simmons/ Sarah Wolujewicz
Racially Minoritised Communities SIG - Session 2
'Barriers to healthcare and Racial inequalities in Healthcare'
Barriers to HIV Testing in Sexual Health Services for Black women - Glenda Bonde
Theories of equality and race, and how the law (fails to) protect racially minoritised patients - Dr Yasmin Walters
For the full programme click HERE
Thank you to our sponsor
Speakers
Kirstin Mitchell
Kirstin Mitchell is Professor of Social Science and Public Health at the University of Glasgow’s School of Health and Wellbeing, leading research on intimate relationships, sexual wellbeing, and gender-based violence. As Co-Investigator on the Fourth National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-4), she leads research to define and measure sexual wellbeing. She also co-leads research on sexual wellbeing to underpin the Scottish Government's Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus strategy. On gender-based violence, she leads a national evaluation of a whole-school approach to GBV being implemented in schools across Scotland.
Emily Setty
Emily Setty is an Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Surrey. Her research focuses on young people’s experiences of sex and relationships, across online and offline contexts, with a particular focus on sexual harm, consent and digital intimacies. Emily’s research investigates the nature and effectiveness of policy and practice designed to prevent and respond to the risks and harms young people face, and seeks to develop and evaluate effective intervention strategies that support them to develop and experience positive and healthy relationships and peer cultures. Emily works extensively with young people, parents/carers, professionals and policy-makers to achieve impact with her work.
Penny Goold
Penny Goold has been a Consultant in Sexual health and HIV since 2005 at Umbrella sexual health service in Birmingham. She is clinical lead of the Umbrella Psychosexual medicine and therapy service and works as part of the team in the Umbrella ‘Abuse survivors’ clinic(ASC)’. She is a member and seminar leader for the Institute of Psychosexual medicine and is an associate member of the College of sex and relationship therapists.
Dr Kiersten Simmons
Dr Kiersten Simmons is a PhD Fellow at Brighton and Sussex Medical School and a HIV and Sexual Health Specialist Registrar (ST6) at the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. She is currently completing a PhD entitled 'Sexual Health and Sexual Wellbeing Services for Midlife Women (40-65 years): A Health Equity Lens'. She co-founded the Kent, Surrey, and Sussex Women's Healthcare Research Network in 2024, and has also established a national coastal communities healthcare research network. She has strong interests in the links between intersectionality, sexual health and sexual wellbeing, and implementation research.
Sarah Wolujewicz
Sarah began her physiotherapy career in 2005 and joined the pelvic health physiotherapy team at Cardiff & Vale University Health Board in 2021 after working at a central London NHS Trust managing one of the largest pelvic health physiotherapy teams in the UK. Sarah treats patients with pelvic floor dysfunction including urinary and faecal incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse and chronic pelvic pain. In September, 2024, she completed her MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice (Pelvic Health) at Brunel University. She is the physiotherapist representative on the British Association of Sexual Health & HIV Special Interest Group in Sexual Dysfunction.
Dr Eduardo Peres
Dr Eduardo Peres (he/they) is a queer, Brazilian speciality doctor in sexual health and HIV medicine at Chelsea Westminster Hospital, in London. They have moved to the UK in 2020 from Brazil, where they previously worked in the public healthcare sector as a General Practitioner with special interest in Gender and Sexual Health, while completing a Diploma in Psychosexual Therapy, followed by an Advanced Specialist Diploma in Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity Psychotherapy. Eduardo has been involved with human rights activism and advocacy throughout his career, focusing his work on marginalised communities, especially LGBTQ+, migrants and racially minoritised people. They have been advocating for equitable access to healthcare for the Latin American community in the UK and for sex workers rights, and currently coordinates a specialist clinic for these groups at John Hunter Clinic. They are currently the Chair for the Racially Minoritised Communities Special Interest Group at the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (RMC SIG BASHH), a member of both BASHH and the British HIV Association (BHIVA) Equality, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EEDI) Action Groups, as well as one of the Non-Executive Directors at The Love Tank CIC.
Glenda Bonde
Glenda Bonde is a qualified nurse -midwife by background who has spent over eighteen years working within the field of sexual and reproductive health. Glenda has worked in the NHS and in senior roles in the Third sector for charities such Barnardo's, Turning and the Terrence Higgins Trust. Glenda is in her final year of a PHD in Population Health Sciences at the University of Bristol’s NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Behavioural Science and Evaluation.
The presentation Glenda will share forms part of a her PHD: The PHD is entitled Leaving no one behind: An intersectional exploration of the drivers of HIV testing inequities in women of Black African heritage in the UK.
Glenda is passionate about health equity, health promotion and health inclusion for seldom heard and marginalised populations.
Outside of work Glenda enjoys a game of chess, baking and spending time her family.
Dr Yasmin Walters
Dr Yasmin Walters is a consultant in HIV and Genitourinary Medicine, currently working at Sexual Health Hounslow, West Middlesex Hospital. She is has a special interest in health inequalities, contraception and medical ethics and law. She completed her MA in Medical Ethics and Law in 2021 at Kings College London, examining the existing legal frameworks in the England and Wales and how they fail to protect ethnic minorities from poorer health outcomes in her dissertation. She is a member of the Racially Minoritised Communities SIG, and also sits on the BHIVA EEDI Action Group, BASHH EEDI Steering Group and Fumble Expert Advisory Group.