Client Sexuality in Healthcare Settings

When a professional is demonstrably at ease with sexuality topics, this meaningfully lowers the threshold for clients to raise sexual concerns. Clients often find it difficult to raise sexual concerns themselves, and a client with medication-related erectile difficulties reported feeling less alone and more human because a professional opened the conversation. Organisational prohibition of sexual activity between clients varies widely, with some organisations forbidding relationships or co-sleeping while others permit consensual sex or leave rules ambiguous. Clients with intellectual disabilities may not be able to articulate where their own sexual boundaries lie, making professional assessment of boundary violations difficult. Where sexual activity is prohibited, clients sometimes engage in it secretly, and the prohibition discourages clients from discussing sexual questions or problems with staff. Clients who have experienced sexual abuse may not know the norms surrounding sexuality or may be reluctant or unable to articulate their sexual needs.