By: Sonora Slater, The Dirt
The new year in Davis brings a new vision when it comes to sexual health care—access to confidential, inclusive, and evidence-based care for both students and the broader community. Designed to meet the needs of a diverse population, the Davis Sexual Health Clinic reduces barriers like distance (it’s Downtown), insurance (they accept a variety), and nerves (the office is so welcoming, staff so pleasant).
During the five years nurse practitioner Elizabeth Oleson spent working as a primary care provider at the UC Davis Student Health and Wellness Center, she met dozens of undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom she built solid relationships with—until they graduated, and were no longer able to receive care from the University-serving location. Despite her appreciation for the work the Student Center does, Oleson began to imagine what it would look like to have a place where individuals who graduate from UC Davis and choose to continue living in the area could also continue their relationship with a trusted healthcare provider.
“The University is an inseparable part of the town of Davis,” Oleson told The Dirt. “But I started to see how what would make sense is to have somewhere that could serve both—that could offer services to students, but also to non-students as they move on, and to the community at large.”
Her brainchild, the Davis Sexual Health Clinic, DaSH for short, opened its doors in November. Located at 207 3rd Street on the border between campus and downtown, the office also bridges the gap between campus and Downtown.
Sexual Health Focus
The choice to focus narrowly on sexual health rather than act as a full scope primary care clinic is a response to the kind of healthcare needs Oleson saw most frequently requested by students—and partially a recognition of where the gaps were in the current healthcare offerings in Davis.
“Frankly, [we thought full-scale primary care] might be better served in some of the very successfully managed care institutions in Davis like Sutter and Kaiser,” Oleson explained. “So we thought, we’ll narrow our scope to sexual health, but expand the patients we can see, and see what happens.”
DaSH offers services ranging from routine gynecology care, to resources for menopause, hormone therapies, contraception services, infection testing and more. As DaSH’s patient list grows, Oleson said she hopes the community views DaSH as a resource where they can learn about the sexual and reproductive health options available to them, and ask questions.
She’s especially hopeful the clinic will become a valuable resource for menopausal and perimenopausal women, as well as a place where teens can learn and ask questions about menstruation, sex, or other aspects of confidential healthcare.
“We can hope that teens have supportive family and teachers and opportunities to learn and ask questions, but we know that that’s not a guarantee,” Oleson said. “[We want to be] a resource for someone to come and get confidential care, whether that’s about contraception or infection testing, pregnancy testing, menstruation and what available options you have, which products to use, whether your menstruation is normal.”
Insurance Coverage Options
Beyond serving a greater variety of ages, Oleson noted the scope of their care has grown in terms of the types of insurance that they’re able to accept. While the on-campus health provider is only able to accept UC Davis’ insurance system, UC Ship—which she said fewer than half of students at the school have—DaSH is able to contract with a much wider variety of insurance companies.
Sexual Health is Health
“Sexual health is health,” Oleson emphasized. “The kind of care that we offer is sexual in the sense that sexual organs are human organs, and sexual and gender identity are intimate and personal things that deserve protected space. We are very able to do STI testing, contraception, all of these things that address the needs of sexually active humans, but sexual health encompasses far more than just being sexually active.”
