EDITOR,
As a long-time volunteer at, and board member of, the Squamish OPT (Options for Sexual Health) clinic, I appreciated your article last week on the push to have free contraception available in B.C. ("Children by choice, not by chance," The Chief, May 13), but I do want to emphasize a few other points about the clinic. As your article stressed, one of our services is to provide contraceptive counselling and low-cost birth control, which is mainly aimed at our female clients. However, in co-operation with Vancouver Coastal Health, we also provide a range of STI counselling, testing, and treatment, which are useful to all our clients, both male and female.
Secondly, the article mentioned that we provide "abortion services," which is a bit misleading as pregnancy terminations are not done at our clinic, and indeed, not in Squamish at all. We provide pregnancy testing, non-judgmental information and support, and, if a woman chooses, referral to abortion services in Vancouver.
Lastly, I would like to stress that although we do have dedicated public health nurses and physicians at the clinic, we also could not run without the help of trained volunteers. We are always looking for more volunteers; if anyone is interested they would be welcome to drop by the clinic (located in the Public Health Unit behind Nesters) on a Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m., or phone us and leave a message at (604) 892-2293, ext. 600.
Laura Flynn
Squamish
