Exemplar Health Care has welcomed its first Sexuality Champions to encourage conversations about friendships, sexuality, and intimacy.
Working with Exemplar’s existing sexuality training programme, this new initiative is intended to build the confidence and knowledge of staff and residents while challenging perceptions about sex and disability to empower people to maintain fulfilling and healthy personal relationships.
Exemplar partnered with charity Enhance the UK to first deliver training on this topic in 2020. As part of Enhance the UK’s #UndressingDisability campaign, which aims to normalise sex and disability, team members at all Exemplar Health Care homes are trained to help residents exercise their right of sexual expression in a safe, healthy, and legal way. This training will now be led by the new Sexuality Champions, to ensure everyone continues to be educated on the topic and feels confident to continue having these conversations.
Lianne Ford, head nurse at Exemplar Health Care, said: “We all want to be loved, look and feel good, and have meaningful relationships. Our Sexuality Champions are here to ensure that this isn’t any different for people who live in care homes.
“Our Champions deliver training and support to both colleagues and residents to improve care around sexuality, intimacy and relationships, in a safe and lawful way. The aim is to make this part of ‘the norm’ at Exemplar Health Care, and we will continue to put in the work to make sure this becomes the case.”
