"HSE funding advice on teen threesomes" - Sindo

Odysseus wrote: »

Would you rather we deny people access to this info?

INformation is fine but why not say as a fist principal that engaging in threesums as a teenager is probably not the best thing to be doing. Teens are not developmentally ready for this kind of activity. Even as an adult engaging in three sums is probably only ever going to lead to jealously regret insecurity etc.

Threesums fun? As a teen? FFS i must be getting old.

flatbackfour wrote: »

The pros and cons of teens engaging in theesums is pretty oxymornic.

In your opinion.

However how does that effect you personally? It seems to me that the only 'harm' they are causing is offence to random strangers who really shouldn't be poking their nose into it either way.

efb wrote: »

How so?

Well you think teens are developmentally ready to engage in threesums, that they have the kind of social and emotional skills to be able to process the wide range of emotional and psychological issues around this kind of activity. You dont think as a first point of advice kids should be told maybe wait till you are ready emotionally. thats fine, let the teens reap the reward of this not judgmental impartial advice.

P_1 wrote: »

In your opinion.

However how does that effect you personally? It seems to me that the only 'harm' they are causing is offence to random strangers who really shouldn't be poking their nose into it either way.

Well i happen to think that promoting teens into having threesums is pretty bad for society and for teens themselves, without at least first offering the advice to teens that they are probably not ready developmentally for such activity.

I deal with kids every day I see how they are more and more being manipulated by a overly sexualised media that it obsessed with sex as just a fun activity without any emotional consequences. I would expect a more nuanced approach from such a website.

Just don't buy into the consumerist of sexuality as an individualized product without consequences.

bluewolf wrote: »

Headings from the article
Nothing wrong there

Pretending things don't exist is an awful way to educate someone

Why not have said at the beginning of the artical that as a teenager is probably on balance unwise to have a threesum?

Do you think haveing a threesum as a teenage is a normal healthy activity

flatbackfour wrote: »

Well i happen to think that promoting teens into having threesums is pretty bad for society and for teens themselves, without at least first offering the advice to teens that they are probably not ready developmentally for such activity.

I deal with kids every day I see how they are more and more being manipulated by a overly sexualised media that it obsessed with sex as just a fun activity without any emotional consequences. I would expect a more nuanced approach from such a website.

Just don't buy into the consumerist of sexuality as an individualized product without consequences.

But thats what that article did.

It outlined the most common positives, the most common negatives, offered advice as to how to do it safely and allowed them to decide for themselves.

What can possibly be wrong with that?

Advice??? back in my day we justgot on with it and did the job, had no coaching!

Thinking of sending this to her but wondering is it a bit harsh? I think it's grand but it'd be good to get another perspective. Tis fairly long so apologies!


Dear Ms. Mulherin,

I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion and value the principle of free speech as I think it is a hallmark of our democracy. However, as an elected representative your opinion carries more weight than an ordinary citizen's opinion and as can be seen with your comments on Spunout's sexual advice is much more likely to feature in the national media and so in public discussion as a whole.

It is for this reason that I am disappointed with your views on Spunout's advice (and in effect Spunout in general). As a result of these comments the media is focusing on one article on their website (out of dozens of articles). This detracts from the excellent work Spunout does. I'm not sure if you've viewed the Spunout website but I think it's worth visiting regardless. You'll see that Spunout has sections on mental health, drugs and alcohol,sex etc. I think the focus on mental health is very important as the number of suicides in Ireland rose 7% from 2010 to 2011 and I fear there has been a further rise since 2012.

As can be seen in this article,over 500 individuals took their own life in 2011.The majority of these were men (489) while 89 women took their own lives. The majority of these individuals were in the 15 - 44 age bracket. In Ireland, for whatever reasons, men (young men in particular) are often reluctant to deal with any issues/problems they encounter and as can be seen from these statistics are more likely to die from suicide than woman. That's why I think Spunout is such a good resource as anyone (especially young people) reluctant to talk with friends, family or a medical profession can seek advice from the comfort of their own home via the internet.

Therefore are I think your comments have had the unintended consequence of detracting from the positive work Spunout does in numerous areas (not just in suicide prevention as outlined above). I read the article in question and do not think it in any way encourages threesomes. After all if that were the case then sexual advice of any kind could be seen as encouraging young people to engage in sexual activity. In fact the opposite is the case, as the HSE Irish Contraceptive and Crisis Pregnancy Study 2010 demonstrates. This found that : ''Compared with 2003, the average age of those having sex for the first time remained unchanged for men, at 17, and had risen slightly for women, to 18. Some 15 per cent of 18- to 25-year-olds said they had never had sex, up from 13 per cent in 2003.''

I think it is unrealistic to expect young people to engage in abstinence from all sexual activity until marriage. The best way to counter young people engaging in sex when they may be ill-prepared is by giving adequate sexual advice so that if they decide from themselves that they wish to do so then they are aware of the health and social implications of it.

I'm sure you don't need me to tell you about the hardships much of the country is suffering as presumably you hear from individuals on a regular basis. I think a lot of the country would be delighted to be able to worry about an issue such as this but instead they have to contend with the reality of an unemployment crisis, emigration, suicide epidemic, people waiting for year for hospital appointments, bankers receiving extraordinary salaries, to name but a few issues which I believe are more worthy of discussing in the public domain.

As to the funding of Spunout by the HSE, I believe the current head Mr. Tony O'Brien has been overpaid €160,000 and there has been no effort to recoup this sum. This is a considerable deal less than Spunout's annual HSE funding of €124,000 so I believe if overspending is an issue then the HSE should pursue such sums before they stop funding entities like Spunout.


I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my comments,

Thanks for your time,