Family and sexual health clinics will start offering services within two months at specialized polyclinics of medical science universities under a Health Ministry project, in collaboration with the Vice-Presidency for Women and Family affairs.
The scheme seeks to ensure couples’ access to sexual and mental health services, promote healthy Islamic-Iranian lifestyle and enhance their level of satisfaction within marriage to consolidate the family pillars in line with the population policy guidelines of the leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei , said At’hareh Nejadi, planning and coordination deputy at the Vice-Presidency.
On May 20, 2014 in response to the alarming changes in the country’s demographic structure that has seen a decline in the population growth and total fertility rates, and an aging population in recent years, the Leader instructed the relevant government authorities to implement a 14-article population policy.
The policy addresses improving “the dynamism, development and youthful nature of the population” by increasing the fertility rate to above the replacement level and encouraging planned pregnancies.
Another objective is to remove obstacles to and facilitate marriage. In line with this goal, the Health Ministry has established a department of ‘Adolescent Health’ to plan and manage projects related to reproductive health of adolescents and marriage, given that there are currently 11 million (30% of the youth population) single people in the marriageable age.
Different Disciplines
“Ten experts introduced by provincial officials will be recruited for each health clinic,” said Nejadi, reported ISNA. The specialists will be selected from different family-related disciplines such as law, psychology and urology and their level of expertise will be assessed by the ministry prior to their appointment.
Based on an agreement with the Health Ministry, specific departments at Tehran medical universities are in charge of preparing a package of services including guidelines and standards of services provided, monitoring and assessment system, code of conduct for the staff and a local coding system to ensure maximum privacy and data security.
The package will be given to the selected experts who will begin their work by early autumn.
Clinics will be launched in medical universities of Iran, Tehran, Alborz, Mashhad, Gilan, Qom, Mazandaran, Kermanshah, Arak, Isfahan, Shiraz, Ahvaz Jundishapur, Kerman, Ilam, Kashan, Shahid Beheshti and Tabriz.
The provinces have been selected based on the priorities set by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution for implementation of plans to consolidate the institution of the family.
“Locations for the clinics have been identified and the infrastructure is ready but they are not operating yet because we intend to launch all clinics simultaneously so that they are all in sync while following the procedures,” said the official
