Crisis Pregnancy Agency Publishes New Five-Year Strategy
Agency to Provide New Supports to Parents
The State body, the Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA), has published a new five-year Strategy, the second in the six-year history of the organisation. The Strategy builds on the previous one and will continue the work of the Agency established in 2001 to reduce the number of crisis pregnancies and the number of women choosing abortion as an outcome of crisis pregnancy.
Launching the Strategy today in Dublin, the Minister for Health and Children, Ms Mary Harney TD, said the CPA has already made a very effective contribution to reducing the incidence of crisis pregnancy. “The efficient and effective implementation of the new Strategy will require an inter-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach. I hope that we continue to see a reduction in the incidence of crisis pregnancy. Those who do experience crisis pregnancies deserve to be responded to in a caring, compassionate and supportive way.”
Ms Katharine Bulbulia, Chair of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, said a priority for the future will be improving knowledge about relationships and sexuality among adolescents through home, school and community based education. “The You Can Talk To Me DVD and booklet is available to parents of 11-15 year olds to help them to communicate with their children about sex and relationships. Over 53,000 of these packs have been distributed to parents and parents groups in 2007. We will be continuing this work and next week the CPA will be publishing nationally a supplement for parents to help them to communicate openly with their older teenagers about sex and relationships.”
Ms Caroline Spillane, Director of the CPA, said the new Strategy has seven strategic priorities. As well as developing resources for parents, the Agency will be working in partnership with the Department of Education and Science and the HSE to ensure that 100 per cent of post-primary schools will deliver the Relationships and Sexuality Education Programme over the next five years. “Along with these practical steps, the Agency will deliver policy proposals to the Department of Health and Children and the Department of Finance on how the cost of contraception can be minimised in order to ensure consistent contraceptive use by sexually active young men and women.”
As part of the Strategy, the Agency will also be developing a two year campaign aimed at delaying early sexual activity by adolescents and a three-year marketing campaign on consistent and effective contraceptive use. The Strategy will also aim to improve the sexual health information available to asylum seekers; promote the availability of free post-abortion medical and counselling services; and the CPA will be planning quality assurance measures for crisis pregnancy counselling and post-abortion counselling services. A new National University of Ireland accreditation programme for crisis pregnancy counsellors in state-funded agencies commenced earlier this month.
The Agency will also continue its work to improve workplace policies which are an important factor in crisis pregnancy decision making. “Research confirms that decisions to continue a pregnancy and decisions to continue in work are significantly influenced by workplace policy and culture,” Ms Spillane said. The CPA, as part of the new strategy, will be providing information to working people on benefits, rights and entitlements around maternity leave. The Crisis Pregnancy Agency will be working with key players including unions, employer representative organisations to examine routes to improve work-life balance opportunities across employment sectors.
The strategy was developed after a comprehensive consultation between March and May 2007 with a range of government departments, state bodies, professional and voluntary organisations.
Ends
The Strategy is available on www.crisispregnancy.ie
For further information, contact:
Jackie Gallagher
Q4 Public Relations
087 – 2371838
Orla McGowan
Education and Information Officer
Crisis Pregnancy Agency
086-3785366
