Pregnancy support among new wellness services offered to Island women

More community-based women's wellness services are now being offered in Charlottetown and Summerside.

On May 1, Health PEI began offering several community-based services as part of the Women's Wellness Program at the Polyclinic in Charlottetown and Harbourside Health Centre in Summerside, including:

• Post-partum mental health support.
• Pregnancy loss support.
• Prenatal care for women without a primary care provider.
• Sexual health services for all genders.

Some services for all genders

While many of the services offered as part the Women's Wellness Program are specific to women, the sexual health services are available to all Islanders. Within this service, Islanders can access:

• Sexual health education and counselling.
• Pregnancy testing and options counselling.
• Contraception counselling and prescribing (including IUD insertions).
• Sexually transmitted blood borne infection screening, testing, treatment and follow-up.

In January, Health PEI announced the first hospital-based services available through the Women's Wellness Program. They included abortion services at the Prince County Hospital.

• Abortion services announced for P.E.I.: 1 year later

Additional community-based services will be introduced over the coming months, including menopause care and infertility support (information, navigation and coordination of fertility services.)Plans are also underway to expand services other communities across the province.

'Same care'

"We are pleased that the services currently being offered are responding to the needs of Island women," Women's Wellness Program manager Rachelle Pike said in a news release.

"As we continue to expand services across the province we will continue to work closely with primary, public health, and mental-health care providers, as well as specialists such as obstetricians and gynecologists, to ensure Islanders can receive the same care regardless of provider or location."

Islanders can access the services without referral by calling the Women's Wellness Program toll-free at 1-844-365-8258.

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