Client Sexuality in Healthcare Settings

Benefits

Risks & contraindications

Comparisons

Highlighted claims

• Organisational prohibition of sexual activity between clients varies widely, with some organisations forbidding relationships or co-sleeping while others permit consensual sex or leave rules ambiguous. — Sexuality and sexual boundary violations in healthcare organisations: a qualitative focus group study in mental health and disability care in the Netherlands
• Clients with intellectual disabilities may not be able to articulate where their own sexual boundaries lie, making professional assessment of boundary violations difficult. — Sexuality and sexual boundary violations in healthcare organisations: a qualitative focus group study in mental health and disability care in the Netherlands
• Clients who have experienced sexual abuse may not know the norms surrounding sexuality or may be reluctant or unable to articulate their sexual needs. — Sexuality and sexual boundary violations in healthcare organisations: a qualitative focus group study in mental health and disability care in the Netherlands
• When a professional is demonstrably at ease with sexuality topics, this meaningfully lowers the threshold for clients to raise sexual concerns. — Sexuality and sexual boundary violations in healthcare organisations: a qualitative focus group study in mental health and disability care in the Netherlands
• Where sexual activity is prohibited, clients sometimes engage in it secretly, and the prohibition discourages clients from discussing sexual questions or problems with staff. — Sexuality and sexual boundary violations in healthcare organisations: a qualitative focus group study in mental health and disability care in the Netherlands
• Clients often find it difficult to raise sexual concerns themselves, and a client with medication-related erectile difficulties reported feeling less alone and more human because a professional opened the conversation. — Sexuality and sexual boundary violations in healthcare organisations: a qualitative focus group study in mental health and disability care in the Netherlands