Event: Storytelling Workshop: Sexual Health Workers

Glasgow on Tuesday, 6th September 2005

Who Came?

Sexual Health professionals.

What happened?

The purpose of the event was to explore the feelings and beliefs held by participants about sexual health in Glasgow. They looked at the past, the present and the future. This was used as a basis for developing fictional characters in a clinic in 2020.

The Lowdown

The group discussed their relationship to the past and their expectations for the future, using this framework . You can look at how they filled it out here.
 

They used this exercise as a prompt to describe characters living in 2020, at the clinic.

The Patients:

Lewis is aged 19. He had sex 5 hours ago in a Council brothel using up a token he cut out of the Daily Record. He thinks he has picked up the sexually transmitted infection DISH (Dead In Six Hours). Lewis gets to reception at the clinic and faces a 2 hour wait. In order to cope with the severe effects of DISH the clinic now has to be open 24 hours a day, placing a considerable strain on staff. He panics, and security is called. Lewis has a red face, a symptom of DISH in its most advanced stages.

Scott is 16, goes to school and has short spiky hair. He is attending Springburn Hub to get a sexual health check-up and contraceptive advice. (Kids can leave school at anytime to get this advice as it is now considered really important.)

Lima, Scott’s partner, is 15 and was born in Glasgow. She is the daughter of asylum seekers from Somalia who arrived 15 years ago. Lima speaks fluent Somalian, is beautiful and dresses like most other Glaswegians..

Richard is in his late 40’s and needs advice. A captain of industry, Richard is very successful and has a wonderful marriage. But his wife has come home to discover their 16-year-old son in bed with a boy. Richard blames himself. He needs advice about how he might help his son. He has also had an affair in a hotel on a business trip. This is totally not him. He can’t tell his wife without ending their relationship. This is making him feel suicidal. Firstly, he meets Jasmine, who is gorgeous (her dad is from Pakistan, her mum is from Partick. Her dad does not approve of her Scottish boyfriend). Jasmine is successful, everywhere she goes she makes things better, and whenever she walks into a room she makes it glow. She now talks to the suicidal Richard.

The Staff:

Margo is the clinic manager. She is 45 and single, has never been married and is a perfect size 10. She goes to the gym before work, arriving in an open top sports car. She is very supportive and understanding of the staff, but mostly works behind a computer. Although she appears mostly flawless, Margo has smelly feet and people call her ‘smelly Margo’ behind her back.

Irene is in her mid 50s, works at reception, where people are presenting themselves with lots of new diseases, not just emotional problems. The white suits are not happy with the shift system as they have not been paid the going rate. In addition, Irene’s husband has left her. The right medication for DISH needs to be administered by staff to make sure it works.

The group are now in the process of developing a story out of their characters.

Like that? Think you could do better? Could you write 500-1,500 words on Sexual Health in 2020. Could you write about DISH. Or something worse? Better? More exciting? Send a story, with your contact details, to Glasgow 2020, Oyster Arts, 100 Beith Street, Glasgow. G11 6DQ. Or e-mail Gerry Hassan. We will publish all stories on the website, and especially good ones on hoardings around Glasgow and in a forthcoming book.