UN Unveils Comprehensive Chemsex Health Toolkit at Bangkok Symposium

At a two-day conference in Bangkok on Thursday, United Nations (UN) agencies launched a chemical sex health toolkit. The toolkit helps health care providers assist individuals who engage in chemical sex. They should receive the right medical care when needed, without facing humiliation.

People use certain medicines to extend or improve sexual encounters, a practice known as chemical sex or chemsex. The toolkit was introduced on the final day of the “6th Asia-Pacific Chemsex Symposium: Pleasures, Policies, Possibilities” by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). They organized the seminar in collaboration with the Malaysian Aids Foundation, Universiti Malaya, Swing Thailand, HEART Taiwan, and the Institute of HIV Research and Innovation.

The goal of the seminar was to improve participants’ knowledge of drug legislation, chemsex practices, and their effects on Asia-Pacific healthcare systems. It examined community-led, people-centered approaches to providing chemsex-related services, such as regional policies and harm reduction initiatives.

Gay, bisexual men, men who have sex with men (GBMSM), and transgender women are the main focus of the toolkit. They have collaboratively developed the toolkit. This comprises the insights and the experiences of key populations from different countries, said Ms Taimour. “It also provided guides, tools, and training through different teaching content. This emphasizes engagement with those who have engaged in chemsex to be done in a very empathetic and compassionate manner.”

Ms Taimour Opinion On Chemical Sex Health Toolkit

According to her, this toolbox also takes into account the regulated environment surrounding gender and sexuality that many people in Asia-Pacific countries must deal with.

When asked what issues persons who use chemsex frequently face when trying to get treatment. Ms. Taimour responded that people associate a lot of stigma with them. She also provided instances of medical professionals failing to offer appropriate care due to ignorance of drug usage and chemsex. Healthcare providers can place too much emphasis on their patients’ drug usage. By forgetting that they have a responsibility to provide patients with compassionate, nonjudgmental treatment.

In response to a question on how this toolkit could help Thailand. She stated that people regard Thailand as progressive compared to other Asia-Pacific nations. According to her, Thailand may use this toolbox to raise awareness of the problem among health care workers. “We can start small by showing what a good example is and expand it to other services and across countries,” she stated.