By Laura Paradis
Design Researcher and Strategist
On October 9, Ci3’s Design Thinking Lab and the Comer Mobile Health Unit partnered with the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance (ISSA) to provide healthcare services and facilitate a workshop on approaches to human-centered design at their 2017 symposium. The event was a milestone in ISSA’s history, being the first to bring together young people, parents, teachers, healthcare professionals and lawmakers to support LGBTQ+ youth. About 200 people participated from across Illinois.
For the Comer Mobile Health Unit, taking part in the event meant introducing the health team to an LGBTQ+ community that they are less familiar with. This community is an important group to partner with and learn from when making a safe place to talk about health needs, especially as data indicate that increasing numbers of young people identify as LGBTQ+.
To provide the best care possible, the Comer Mobile Health Unit team worked alongside University of Chicago Hospital’s Care2Prevent team to provide rapid HIV testing, testing for other sexually transmitted infections, contraceptive counseling and general resources. The Comer Mobile Health Unit’s Senior Program Manager mentioned that it was the first time she used her pronouns when introducing herself to patients, and that was a positive experience to create a welcoming environment for care.
As the Mobile Health Unit provided care, Ci3’s Design Thinking Lab team led a workshop “Designing with and for Youth: Improving Sexual and Reproductive Health Care through Human-Centered Design.” The team shared their framework for problem-solving and emphasized that building responsive healthcare solutions relies on understanding the lived experiences of potential users, in this case, young people.
Participants engaged in activities to help design a sexual and reproductive healthcare service experience from scratch. Through a speed-dating activity, participants briefly interviewed one another to better understand what makes people feel affirmed and safe. Next, in small teams, they identified what kinds of services young people might desire, ways their legal rights could be respected, and the form a care experience might take. For instance, the experience might be a health fair in a gym, or a healthcare provider on wheels. Lastly, the team created a mock advertisement to market the service using messages that could appeal to young people.
The UChicago team connected with many individuals at the event who support, advocate or work to create better sexual and reproductive healthcare services for LGBTQ+ youth. As the team moves forward in providing adolescent-centered services, they will incorporate and connect with learnings from this important event.
