According to a Long Beach city health department spokesperson, that might explain why there is a recent spike in the number of STDs in Long Beach.
The City of Long Beach’s Department of Health and Human Services has announced a new partnership with Designmatters, a program with the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, which has been commissioned to generate new ideas to reach out to the community to address the issue.
Kelly Colopy, who serves as the director of the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, explained that rates of STDs are now increasing in Long Beach.
In an email to the Signal Tribune, she noted that the City has seen cases of chlamydia reach a 47-percent increase from 2013-2015. Colopy also noted that “the largest increases in rates per 100,000 between 2013-2014 [are] 43 percent for women over age 45 and men over 35 (63 percent for ages 35-44 and 34 percent for males over age 45).”
Gonorrhea has also seen an increase of 115 percent from 2013 to 2015 in the city. The highest rates are among males between the ages of 20 to 29.
Syphilis cases have also seen a 97-percent increase from 2013 to 2015. Colopy said that the highest rates were among males between the ages of 25 and 44, but there were few cases of syphilis in women. Â
“The new HIV-positive tests have remained fairly constant,” Colopy said of the figures in Long Beach, “however our rates are higher than the rest of LA County and the state. We are working to make sure that those who have HIV are maintaining their treatment to make sure they remain healthy and are not passing HIV to others.”
In a follow-up phone interview, Colopy explained why the City is seeing these sudden increases in STD cases.
“Some of the reasons why the rates are going up is that [!] science has been so good, and medications are effective that there’s really not a fear of getting HIV or STDs anymore,” Colopy said. “And so, what we’re finding is that people just aren’t utilizing protection.”
She also noted that, in terms of health education, the City’s health department needs to take a new approach in educating all groups of people, including older adults who may be returning to the dating scene.
“It’s not just a young people’s concern,” she said. “It’s everybody’s concern.”
The need for a campaign to address unhealthy sexual behaviors behind STDs has prompted city officials to support the collaboration with the ArtCenter that is expected to cost up to $80,000. The Long Beach City Council has approved the new partnership with the Designmatters program. Dr. Mariana Amatullo, the program’s co-founder and vice-president, explained that Designmatters is a special-innovation department of the college.
“We have a track record of partnering with city governments and nonprofit organizations to address, in a very creative way, systemic and complex issues,” Amatullo said in a phone interview.
The program has previously partnered with the USC’s Keck School of Medicine and School of Communication and Journalism to develop a program to encourage women in Boyle Heights to get cervical-cancer screenings. Program participants have also collaborated on another program for earthquake preparation in Los Angeles.
The program looks to both undergraduate and graduate students who will work closely with faculty and other experts who may be outside of the college in order to tailor outreach programs. These students do have to apply to the program.
Amatullo described that the tight working relationship between students and faculty is meant to mirror the collaboration of professionals across disciplines in the real world, where design students and those who understand advertising and marketing will work with other experts, like those from the City’s Department of Health and Human Services.
Amatullo explained why that collaboration and “sense of empathy” among the participants often generate powerful messages.
“And when you’re designing with accents of empathy and authenticity,” she concluded, “typically you have a better chance to [!] get your message heard.”
Colopy said that the program will take a number of months to formulate. She anticipated that they will be spending approximately three months to work on different solutions and then bring back ideas for a media campaign. Amatullo said that the students will be working on the project over the summer.
