Sex workers risk health on Bournemouth's streets

3:00pm Saturday 9th February 2013 in News By Jane Reader

NO WAY OUT: A prostitue touts for business on Bournemouth's streets NO WAY OUT: A prostitue touts for business on Bournemouth's streets

HEALTH problems suffered by prostitutes in Bournemouth will be examined in a report due to be released next week.

The Health Needs Assessment of Bournemouth’s Street Sex Workers will be unveiled at an official launch at St Clement’s Church in Boscombe on Monday February 11.

The report has been produced by Bournemouth LINks and the Bournemouth Alcohol and Drug Service User Forum (BADSUF).

Representatives from Dorset Police, the NHS, Bournemouth council, local community groups and councillors have been invited to examine the findings.

LINks, short for Local Involvement Network, is a network of local people who have joined forces to improve health and social care services.

BADSUF is an independent charitable organisation working with and for people engaged in treatment services and those who wish to access such services.

The study reveals that street sex workers often have little regard for their own health or safety.

Most have drug or alcohol addiction and many struggle to find a way out of prostitution.

There is also a lack of emergency accommodation for homeless street sex workers and more evening and weekend outreach work is needed.

“We hope this project kickstarts a determined effort by interested parties to offer the help, advice, support and guidance that is needed” said a spokesman for BADSUF.

And Chris Wakefield of Bournemouth LINks added: “It is absolutely essential that the health needs of Bournemouth’s street sex workers are given more consideration and that key stakeholders provide appropriate care.”

Comments(14)

muscliffman says...
4:06pm Sat 9 Feb 13

"Sex workers risk health on Bournemouth's streets."

Why do we have to have so many of these public-sector/charit
y combined Groups and Forums apparently meeting endlessly to come up with blindingly obvious headlines like this! (Most of us knew this fact when we were still at School!) Cannot wait for the 'Launch'!

But more basically do we really want to support or even encourage a dangerous lifestyle choice that is unacceptable to the majority - and potentially very harmful to those who may choose it.

Prevention is surely better than a cure, and yet here we seem to be in danger of actually nurturing the problem with good intentions - and certainly not curing it. These vulnerable lost souls need our serious help long before they reach the street, not mis-guided support that is likely to actually help them stay there.

Report this post »

mysticalshoelace says...
4:47pm Sat 9 Feb 13

Agree with the above, but what needs to be done is for the police to remove these girls and women from the streets fore their own safety and for the council to place them in some sort of rehabilitation centre with staff that find out why these women are on the streets in the first place and helps them to help themselves and get out of the sex trade.

There is far too much money wasted in setting up useless organisations which don't do anything!

Report this post »

Hessenford says...
6:04pm Sat 9 Feb 13

mysticalshoelace wrote:
Agree with the above, but what needs to be done is for the police to remove these girls and women from the streets fore their own safety and for the council to place them in some sort of rehabilitation centre with staff that find out why these women are on the streets in the first place and helps them to help themselves and get out of the sex trade.

There is far too much money wasted in setting up useless organisations which don't do anything!
Prostitution is the oldest profession in history and it will never cease as long as these girls can earn extra money from it.

Report this post »

tweetSP0RT says...
6:32pm Sat 9 Feb 13

Hessenford wrote:
mysticalshoelace wrote:
Agree with the above, but what needs to be done is for the police to remove these girls and women from the streets fore their own safety and for the council to place them in some sort of rehabilitation centre with staff that find out why these women are on the streets in the first place and helps them to help themselves and get out of the sex trade.

There is far too much money wasted in setting up useless organisations which don't do anything!
Prostitution is the oldest profession in history and it will never cease as long as these girls can earn extra money from it.
Quite...much like the failed 'war on drugs' we need to change approach.

Sex/drugs will always be for sale and all we do currently is criminalise those individuals involved that are usually at the 'bottom of the food chain'.

Take them out of the criminal justice system and then let law enforcement target those pimps/human traffickers (or dealers in the case of drugs) who continue to operate.

Report this post »

mgibbs says...
10:03pm Sat 9 Feb 13

I think it is about time we abandoned our outdated and ineffective prostitution laws, and brought ourselves more inline with the rest of Europe. Prostitution will never be eradicated, wherever there is a demand for a service, there will always be someone willing to supply that service regardless of it's legality. Legalise and licence Brothels. Make them into safe & comfortable places for the girls to work in. Introduce mandatory health & drugs checks, & provide free counselling & advice to the girls who wish to enter the industry, because despite what many "rights activists" of various persuasions want us all to believe, there are many girls out there who really do see Prostitution as a genuine, and rather well paid occupation. At the same time, make hiring a street prostitute a criminal offence.(despite what many people think, street prostitution, and the hiring of a prostitute is actually legal.) This will go some way to protecting the girls that are, or feel forced into prostitution, by others, without turning the girls into criminals. It will also provide those who wish to hire a prostitute greater protection from violence & health problems, and encourage them to hire girls who are doing it safely & legally. This will also help to reduce the desire for street prostitution, and will in turn reduce the problems associated with it.

Report this post »

Hugo808 says...
9:08am Sun 10 Feb 13

Yep, Bournemouth is prostitute capital of the south. It's also stag night capital of the south. Could there be a connection?

We won't solve the problem of prostitution without removing demand, and as that doesn't seem likely we might as well help the girls that get drawn into it via drugs or homelessness. It's nothing but a sick symptom of a sick society.

Report this post »

retry69 says...
9:17am Sun 10 Feb 13

Yep, and a while ago Bournemouth was the murder capital of Europe.Over-reaction by the unstable residents of our town?Just a tad,get on with your lives and stop worrying about things you can do nowt about,believe me you will have more important agendas as you mature

Report this post »

ashleycross says...
10:02am Sun 10 Feb 13

We urgently need a local counselling service for people abused as children staffed by professionally regulated qualified counsellors. This is the only way to convict the men who drive these girls onto drugs to try to forget the horrors of their childhood and then onto the streets to pay for the drugs.Only by making a good enough recovery to go to court can there be any chance of stopping this rot. The area draws in paedophiles from all round the country and these are what lead to street prostitution as the girls get older.A large part of their health needs is helping with this damage done early on. Instead unqualified amateurs are trying desperately to fill the gap but simply don't have the training or professional standards to be anything other than a very high risk option for girls using them. The law was changed several decades ago to stop unqualified counsellors setting up even as volunteers and it is high time this law was enforced.

Report this post »

stevobath says...
12:54pm Sun 10 Feb 13

ashleycross wrote:
We urgently need a local counselling service for people abused as children staffed by professionally regulated qualified counsellors. This is the only way to convict the men who drive these girls onto drugs to try to forget the horrors of their childhood and then onto the streets to pay for the drugs.Only by making a good enough recovery to go to court can there be any chance of stopping this rot. The area draws in paedophiles from all round the country and these are what lead to street prostitution as the girls get older.A large part of their health needs is helping with this damage done early on. Instead unqualified amateurs are trying desperately to fill the gap but simply don't have the training or professional standards to be anything other than a very high risk option for girls using them. The law was changed several decades ago to stop unqualified counsellors setting up even as volunteers and it is high time this law was enforced.
Just cause you read a book & take a few courses doesn't make you an expert..Too many 'Councellors' who've had NO experience of the things they're trying to treat.

Believe me the best & most respected councellors are those that have BEEN in the same situation as these girls.

The explosion in Counselling 'Training' has acheived NOTHING.Its become another BIG MONEYMAKING INDUSTRY.

The war on drugs is a failure, just as any kind of war on the sex trade will be.Legalise brothels for starters is a no brainer.Same with certain drugs...

Report this post »

Azphreal says...
2:20pm Sun 10 Feb 13

Make it legal,in brothels! Then they can be checked by a doctor,the money they make does not go to a pimp (apart from the Government in tax) and checks can be made to make sure they have not been brought into the country for sex. Then is they are doing it for drugs they could get rehab help,if its was abuse (sorry but thats not the main reason) they can get help with that. The problem is that some women see it as the only way they can make money.

Report this post »

verityvita says...
3:18pm Sun 10 Feb 13

''Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum,
And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on,
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on."
And so it is in Boscombe, the blood suckers feast on the addicts and the prostitutes; health centre's that bring them into the area, landlords that charge the most they can make for housing them; 'counsellors' charging by the hour 'not' to do anything worth while for anybody but their bank balance;Rehabs that don't work (look at Gazza) but make loads of dosh; all the people who set themselves up as 'Companies' to dodge tax which might have gone towards helping said problems, feast away fleas, feast away. Makes you want to throw up.

Report this post »

GAHmusic says...
4:27pm Sun 10 Feb 13

Whilst I agree legalising prostitution and allowing it to become a respectful, regulated bussiness is long overdue I don't think it would change things for a lot of these girls. I think the vast majority of the street girls are drug adicts and alcoholics who do it to feed their adictions and they would still not be able to work for a regulated brothel. I hope this scheme can help a little but these girls need help to change their lives, to beat their adictions as probably quite a few of them, given a choice would not be prostitutes at all. And don't judge them either as many of them have been forcefully taken or drugged by devious pimps or come from broken lives and dont have the good start a lot of us are fortunate to have.

Report this post »

Tom 'Boscombe' Jones says...
9:37am Tue 12 Feb 13

What a scary photo of Chris, stick that on the street corners and it'd scare off all the punters.

Report this post »

frederick the grate says...
7:11pm Fri 22 Feb 13

i have holidade in bournemouth, christchurch, and boscombe and in fifteen years i have never seen a prossie.......

Report this post »

click2find

About cookies

We want you to enjoy your visit to our website. That's why we use cookies to enhance your experience. By staying on our website you agree to our use of cookies. Find out more about the cookies we use.

I agree