A program offering critical support and education on sexual health and sexually transmitted infections for the communities of Banff and Canmore has been forced to shut down this week due to funding cuts.
The closure of the Banff satellite office of HIV Community Link, a not-for-profit HIV/AIDS service organization that offers support services, prevention and education to individuals who are at-risk for, affected by or living with HIV/AIDS in the Bow Valley, is effective March 20.
Officials say there is a high demand for STI/HIV education and prevention work given the young transient population in Banff, where there are high rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
“We are very saddened and concerned because it’s well understood that the Bow Valley corridor has disproportionately high STI rates,” said Andrea Carter, HIV Community Link’s Calgary-based team leader of prevention and engagement.
“The community is losing some really key services around sexual health, health promotion, and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections – this is going to leave a gap in the Bow Valley.”
HIV Community Link, formerly known as AIDS Calgary, has operated a satellite office in Banff four days a week for the past three years. They took over when the Alberta government pulled funding on AIDS Bow Valley in 2010, forcing its closure after 18 years.
The nearest dedicated STI clinic is in Calgary.
The office in Banff was funded by the Alberta Community HIV Fund, which consists of funding from Alberta Health and the Public Health Agency of Canada. Community Link received $63,000 for the program.
HIV Community Link successfully launched Banff’s first ever Pride event in 2013, works closely with the LGBTQ community, provided regular education and outreach to increase HIV awareness and handed out over 50,000 condoms a year in Banff.
According to Alberta Health’s own statistics, STI rates in Banff were higher than the provincial rates for three of the top five Alberta STIs 2009-12 – chlamydia, gonorrhea and non-gonococcal urethritis, such as genital herpes and syphilis.
Alison Gerrits, supervisor of the Town of Banff’s Family Community Support Services (FCSS), said the elimination of this program in Banff is “very concerning.”
“It appears Banff was not deemed as high a need as other places, and it’s baffling given the statistics,” she said.
“We have had 21 years of support service around prevention and education of STIs and HIV infection in our community and, given the stats we have around our demographics, it makes sense these kinds of services would be located here.”
The Town of Banff’s social assessment shows 30 per cent of Banff’s population is between the ages of 20 and 29, which is twice the Alberta average for that age group, and Banff also has a high single, never-been-married population of 54 per cent, compared to 28 per cent in Alberta.
“These are risk factors. We know individuals aged 20 to 29 are more sexually active,” said Gerrits.
“We have a population group that is extremely mobile, rotating through the community, so we have individuals who have not received messaging in the past. That consistent presence and piece of education is so crucial.”
Gerrits said the issue is being raised with Banff-Cochrane MLA Ron Casey and a series of letters are being fired off to the provincial funding body.
“At the end of the day we have this gap now, a very sudden gap with the doors closing this week, and we need to figure out as a community what we’re going to do,” she said.
Carter said Alberta Health and Covenant Health held a series of meetings to gather community consultation in Bow Valley in 2012, which led to the development of strategic priorities for health services in the region.
“One of those was STI information and prevention, and another one of those was mental health and substance abuse issues,” she said.
“Those were all focuses of our programming. Those were some of the key issues we were addressing, and there’s clear data there’s a high need in the area.”
A spokesperson for Alberta Health did not get back to the Outlook by press time.
