Table 3 Themes and illustrative quotes about desired features of ideal STD services from eight focus groups
Desired feature | Illustrative Quotes |
|---|---|
Features consistent across groups | |
Familiar and frequented location | "It should be near home...and just not out in the middle of nowhere, so it's not like you're doing something illegal and you've got to drive miles in the car...and make it easier too, just to like stop by before you go to the mall." |
Professional but welcoming | "It would be nice to be kind of a relaxed atmosphere, yet professional." |
Open evening and weekend hours | "From 5 to 8 p.m. Because, many... All the Mexicans work. Thanks to God, from six a.m. to five p.m for those who work in construction...There should be two shifts: one in the morning and another in the evening..." |
"I have class till 5:30 and that means I can't do anything with my Wednesdays since everything closes at 5." | |
Urine-based STD screening offered | "But I'd be much more tempted if it was just a pee in a cup thing." |
Counseling and health education offered | "Some teenagers are scared to talk to their parents about what they're doing, so I think [it would be good] if you have someone that you can talk to." |
Features inconsistent across groups | |
Offering non-STD services with STD services | "...There are some who won't go, out of embarrassment...If they saw that people were going to the clinic for all sorts of diseases, well then...they would no longer have a reason to be embarrassed, because no one would know." |
"You wouldn't feel so alone if the clinic was specialized in that, you know, you'd feel like, 'I'm not the only one' ...." | |
Offering screening in non-clinical community sites | "If I was faced with an STD, I wouldn't want it to be such a big ordeal...and if it was at some place like the "Y" that I go a lot and feel comfortable there, then it would probably make it less scary than if I just went to this huge health service place and it was just like totally out of my comfort zone." |
"I would not feel comfortable going to such a public place as the mall or something like that. ...It would be like, 'Well, if I go to the mall, I hope I don't see my friends like I do every time I go to the mall!"' | |