15th Annual Conference of the British HIV Association 1-3 April 2009, Liverpool, UK

THE IMPORTANCE OF PROVIDING VOLUNTARY SECTOR ADVOCACY AND PEER SUPPORT WORKERS IN HIV CLINICS

HIV Med 2009 Apr 1-3 (Suppl 1);15:19 (abstract no. P17)

M Muheki¹, J Rwami¹ and C Wood^2
1 PACSH – Pan African Caribbean Sexual Health and HIV, London, UK, ² North Middlesex University Hospital, London, UK

BACKGROUND: HIV-positive patients may have many different kinds of issues and problems to deal with in their daily life. The voluntary sector (VS) and peer support (PS) workers are uniquely placed to help patients address many of these issues in a non-medicalised way and independently of the medical team. We describe nearly 10 years experience of working closely with VS advocates and PS workers based in our clinic.

METHODS: We reviewed the voluntary sector and peer support activity in our clinic during an 8 month period starting August 2007. We gathered data from a patient survey and feedback from staff.

RESULTS: One hundred and sixty patients were seen in this 8 months period, either by the voluntary sector advocate or the peer support worker. The issues they dealt with included: housing, immigration; pregnancy, disclosure, stigma, destitution, and emotional support to newly diagnosed patients. They were closely involved with patients requiring intensive adherence support. Patients and staff expressed high levels of satisfaction with the services.

CONCLUSIONS: VS and PS workers have greatly added to services that we are able to provide in our clinic. Immediate access to them has improved the quality of service both from the perspective of healthcare providers and patients. They have been particularly invaluable in complex hard to reach cases relating to denial and non-acceptance of HIV diagnosis, disclosure and poor adherence to therapy. We believe that there should be access to these services for all patients attending HIV services in the UK. We recognize that some clinics may not have voluntary sector support locally. However, peer support workers can be developed in any clinic with appropriate prioritization, this issue should be addressed at national level so that funding is readily available. We believe it is time to recognize the invaluable services that voluntary sectors and peer support workers provide to the statutory sector and the statutory sector needs to take some responsibility to ensure, availability, provision and continuity of these services.

2009-04-01
P17

Copyright © 2009 - British HIV Association (BHIVA) Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the BHIVA Organising Secretariat 1 Mountview Court, 310 Friern Barnet Lane, London N20 0LD