Changes to Our Services

posted: 18/04/2011

There are some exciting changes to services at George House Trust. Some of the group spaces will happen less often, but we will have three new services for everyone. People using George House Trust services have asked us for more chances to meet with a wide mix of people living with HIV – opportunities to meet others that are not based on gender, race, or sexuality.
 

Saturday Space is every month and will stay the same.
 

Weekly Gay Men’s Space
For the time being Gay Men’s Space will stay weekly on Monday evenings. This will be reviewed over the next 5 months. For now the gay men’s space is funded by the Elton John AIDS Foundation but this funding will stop at the end of September. We have already talked about this at the space and all changes will be discussed fully with men at the space before changes are made.
 

African Space on 1st Tuesday of every month
The African Space will become monthly starting in May. African Space will be the first Tuesday of the month. It will be just like the African Space is now.
 

Coffee Morning on 2nd Tuesdays of every month
There will be a new Coffee Morning, run by volunteers on the 2nd Tuesday of the month, starting on the 10th of May. This will be from 10.30 – 12.30 and there will be a crèche. Coffee Mornings are for all people living with HIV. The Coffee Mornings will be run by volunteers and during the Coffee Morning there will be no access to staff, the reception, computers, phone nor emergency payments.
 

Women’s Space on 3rd Tuesday of every month
The Women’s Space will become monthly starting in May. Women’s Space will be the third Tuesday. It will be just like the Women’s Space is now.
 

Health Information Sessions on 4th Tuesday of every month
There will be new monthly Health Information Sessions, on the 4th Tuesday of the month. These will be from 12 noon – 2.30 and open to all people living with HIV. There is no need to book. These sessions will usually be led by George House Trust staff and each month there will be a different topic. There will be a crèche and some food.
 

When there are five Tuesdays in the month there will be no space or other service on the 5th Tuesday.
 

Monthly HIV Workshops - dates and times vary
In addition to the Tuesday services we will also be offering a monthly HIV workshop. There will not be a regular date because our training room is sometimes booked. The Monthly HIV Workshops will last about 3.5 hours. There will not be a crèche but we can help with child care costs if you ask in advance.

The next workshop will be about Disclosure, telling other people about having HIV, on Friday 27th May. We have not set the exact time yet.

You will need to book a place at these workshops in advance - please contact Nathan Perry the George House Trust Health Trainer for more details

Computers and Phone in reception
If you want to use the computers in our reception, please ring and book if you have credit on your phone. If you have not booked and just arrive you will be able to use the computer if one is free.
 

No appointment?
We want to strongly encourage people to always make appointments. The services team will only be able to see people without appointments if it is most urgent.
 

Check the website diary for more details and dates

The website diary has the dates and details of all services until the end of May, and for some services for after this. We will add all the dates and details for the rest of the year to the diary before the end of April. See our services diary  

Tell us what you think

Lynda, our director of services is happy to receive feedback on all aspects of our work and services, please email her It is really important that we have your support and backing - we want to provide the services that you want and need.
 

Comforted Creatures Video

posted: 14/04/2011

We produced this animation (with apologies to Ardman Animation’s Creature Comforts) as a serious but amusing presentation on some of our work, for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. You can view it on the new videos page of the HIV magazine Baseline.

We interviewed people with HIV who have benefited from our positive prevention work and residential weekends, funded by the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
 

Excellent Presentation

After presenting all our Positive Prevention work which they have funded, to the Foundation's panel, they told us:

"George House Trust were the first to present and I have to say set a standard that was not replicated. If there was ever a lesson on how to do an interesting presentation, that was it.

Lynda and Colin spoke with passion about the work, the achievements so far and the publication of initial outcomes (they had the BHIVA/NHIVNA poster displayed).

An individual talked very openly and honestly about how he had benefited from the programme and to top it all we were treated to an animated film with people’s real experiences of the support and help they had received.

A perfect presentation with something for everyone - excellent!"

CHAPS impressed

We also showed this at the recent CHAPS conference held in Manchester for organisations and people involved in HIV prevention work with men who have sex with men. Robbie Currie, a leading NHS HIV prevention commissioner in London was very impressed, asking number of questions and commenting how useful a resource it was, and his interested in having something similar.  

View Comforted Creatures here http://www.baseline-hiv.co.uk/latest-videos

Answers in Untested Mystery

posted: 12/04/2011

HIV experts in England are puzzled why some people using STI clinics refuse HIV tests. We know for sure that some of those refusing HIV tests do have HIV (from using blood from samples given for syphilis tests and after the syphilis test is done and the blood sample is made completely anonymous, it can be tested for HIV).

The 2009 results from doing this show that 2.4% of gay and bisexual men and 0.25% of heterosexuals tested for syphilis came to the sexual health clinic with undiagnosed HIV.

But only 63% of these people agreed to a HIV test at the STI clinic - much lower than the average rate of HIV testing for people using STI clinics.

Why are so many people who have ‘undiagnosed’ HIV, refusing HIV tests?

One quarter must already know they have HIV - they are taking HIV treatment !

Some useful answers to the testing mystery have now emerged. Now we know that around a quarter of people with ‘undiagnosed’ must know they have HIV, because blood tests prove they are taking HIV treatment. These and other results, given at the British HIV Association conference in Bournemouth last week, are the first clear evidence of some answers to the ‘undiagnosed’ mystery.
 

Slightly more heterosexual women and men (32% for both men and women) than gay men (24%) are using a different clinic for STI checks than for their HIV treatment. Experts thought gay men with HIV were more likely to go elsewhere for HIV checks than heterosexuals. Experts don’t always guess right. Some people with HIV have told community organisations and patient advocates that one reason they go elsewhere for testing is to avoid unwanted, intrusive or judgemental discussion of their sexual behaviour by their own HIV clinic.
 

The results means

• 9 in 100 of the gay and bisexual men who said yes to a syphilis test but no to a HIV test have HIV. At least 2 of those 9 are on treatment but didn’t tell the STI clinic they have HIV
• 8 in 1000 of the heterosexual women and men similarly are HIV positive. At least 2 of those 8 are on treatment but did not tell the STI clinic they have HIV.
   

These findings will make little difference to national estimates of how much undiagnosed HIV there is in the country.
 

Why do gay men who don’t yet know they have HIV refuse HIV tests?
Another small study given to last weeks conference looked at why some gay men refuse HIV tests. Researchers gave an anonymous questionnaire to 19 men who didn’t want to be tested, even though they had had anal sex without condoms and have, either never been tested, or had taken anal sex risks since their last HIV test.

The men could tick more than one reason.
 

15 of the 19 men said they believed they were at low risk of HIV infection [2 of the 19 men knew their partner has HIV]

• 14 said they were emotionally unprepared for a positive result
• 4 said they don’t like giving a blood [but nonetheless gave this to have the syphilis test]
• 4 also mentioned prosecutions for HIV transmission
• 4 said they were planning to test 'next month'
• 3 mentioned worries about the confidentiality of the HIV test result.

Testing Advantages well known

Most of the men know the advantages of HIV testing

• 16 said testing could give peace of mind
• 16 said testing allows treatment to start at the best time.

Testing worries rule

But all the gay men listed the disadvantages to them of HIV testing.

• 17 said testing was stressful
• 8 were worried about having to tell a boyfriend if they were positive
• 7 were concerned about the insurance and mortgage implications.

Unready for positive result, testing stress, in denial about risks

So most of these gay men didn’t feel emotionally ready to deal with a positive result, and find HIV testing stressful.

• Most thought their HIV risk was low, despite having taken enough risks to have got HIV and needing to visit an STI clinic.

The study authors suggest investigating ways of overcoming gay men’s resistance to testing at STI clinics.
 

Source 
Reference – the free conference abstracts - read O13 & P152

Treating to Prevent HIV

posted: 03/03/2011

Could people who do not have HIV use HIV treatment drugs (PrEP) to stop themselves from getting HIV? The detailed results just out for gay and bi men are better than the early findings. This means PrEP could be approved for use in the USA by the end of the 2011.

Last year, the first results from a study of gay and bisexual men appeared. Taking PrEP cuts gay and bi men’s risk of getting HIV. But there were worries because many of the men did not take all the tablets. Some men got HIV.

HIV infection
Much better updated results were announced at the CROI conference in Boston, USA, that has just ended.

In the different places where the trial took place, including South Africa, the taking of PrEP (HIV drugs to prevent HIV infection) varied a lot.

Gay and bi men in the two USA cities (Boston and San Francisco) of the international iPrEx study of tenofovir/FTC (Truvada) had near-perfect HIV-prevention drug taking, compared with 50% tablet taking at the other sites.
 

And the men taking the greatest sexual risks for HIV, by having unprotected receptive anal sex, were taking the prevention treatment better than men taking less HIV risks – which is good to know.
 

USA approval within a year?
Lead investigator Bob Grant announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had agreed that the trial results were good enough for the FDA to consider allowing the use of Truvada to prevent HIV. PrEP, as a result, might be approved in the USA by the end of this year.
 

First USA Guidelines for gay men published

Interim Guidance: Pre-exposure Prophylaxis for the Prevention of HIV Infection in Men Who Have Sex with Men from USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

2500 men and the results

There were almost 2500 men in this trial and 130 of them got HIV by the end. Like most drug trials men were randomly split into two groups and told they would either get Truvada, or a dummy pill, but no-one would know who was taking what, until the end. The men were therefore warned they should still use condoms, because half were using the dummy pill.
 

48 of the men who got HIV took the Truvada and 82 of the men who were taking the dummy pills, a HIV infection rate of 2.6% a year. Another 10 other men have HIV, but they already had the symptoms of HIV infection when they joined the study.
 

This means that the final ‘how well does it work’ rate in the ‘modified intent to treat’ analysis, (this leaves out the 10 men who started the study with HIV, and ignores things like different rates of tablet-taking and the men’s level of sexual risk-taking), was 42%.
 

PrEP worked better when men were over 25 (56%), among men who took more than 9 out of 10 of the tablets (68%), and among the men who were circumcised (76%).
 

Would PrEP be cost effective? 

Other new studies have now looked at the value for money of treating people to prevent HIV in South Africa. The answer is mixed. 

It is usually cheaper to treat the person with HIV than treating one or more HIV negative people with PrEP. Treating the person with HIV should reduce their viral load so it becomes undetectable and their chance of passing on HIV then becomes very small. In mixed status couples, that may be enough protection for many. But PrEP would help protect negative partners who have unsafe sex outside the main relationship and who don't use condoms.  

Source and more details

HIV Training and Resources

posted: 02/03/2011

The Sheffield Centre for HIV & Sexual Health has a solid reputation for its training courses and resources. Their 2011 training and resources brochure is now available.
 

We’re highlighting here a few useful courses and resources – HIV prevention for men who have sex with men, HIV Reality Check (about HIV stigma), Partner Notification Skills for Beginners, and a leaflet written by Sheffield women living with HIV.

• HIV Prevention with Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM)
  1 day course £125 13th July 2011; 11th July 2012

This one-day training course explores the reasons for HIV prevention work with men who have sex with men (MSM), one of the communities most affected by HIV in the UK.
It outlines ways to plan interventions that are targeted and appropriate.
 

In order to plan effective interventions you need to understand the context in which MSM live their lives. This course examines key issues, including the impact of internalised homophobia on self esteem and risk-taking behaviour, and how existing services may be inappropriate and inaccessible due to hetero-sexism and a lack of awareness.
 

The course also highlights the needs of specific MSM communities / population groups that may be more vulnerable to HIV infection e.g. young men, black and minority ethnic community men, men engaging in risk-taking behaviours with multiple sexual partners, and men with lower educational qualifications.
 

The course closes by exploring the opportunities and challenges involved in different methods of working with MSM, including:
• Outreach in a range of settings (e.g. Public Sex Environments, Online, Pubs, Clubs, and Saunas)
• Work in community settings (e.g. drop-ins)
• Community development
• Group work (e.g. training and workshops)
• Production of targeted campaigns / resources
The course is for anyone planning, commissioning or delivery of HIV prevention / sexual health promotion with MSM in both the statutory and voluntary sectors.

• HIV Reality Check
  

1 day course; £125, 10th October 2011

Developments in treatments mean that more and more people with HIV are living longer and
healthier lives. But the prejudice and stigma experienced by people living with HIV can still be a barrier to them accessing the support services and treatment they need.
 

Currently, about a third of people with HIV are unaware that they have the infection, with stigma playing a major part in preventing people from testing for HIV.
 

This one-day training course encourages service providers to:
• Check their current levels of knowledge and understanding on HIV and transmission
• Explore the varying impacts of HIV related stigma on different communities
• Discuss the issue of prosecution for HIV transmission, and anxieties around disclosure of HIV status
• Action plan based on recommendations produced in consultation with people living with HIV
 

The course is suitable for professionals looking to develop their basic knowledge and awareness of HIV related stigma. The training is suitable for professionals from services including Primary Care, Social Care, Health and Education.

• HIV Reality Check Manual

£40, available in April 2011
A training manual with accompanying CD, for health and social care professionals on raising awareness and addressing the issues of HIV related stigma and discrimination in service provision.
The manual includes:
• Research and consultation findings on people living with HIV’s experiences of stigma and discrimination
• A range of training sessions with step by step exercises for delivering training to other professionals
• Guidance for the planning and delivery of training for people living with HIV, on developing the skills to manage stigma and discrimination and for positive living.
 

• Partner Notification Skills for Beginners

2 day course; £250; 7th - 8th March 2011; 5th - 6th March 2012
 

This two day course has been designed to assist practitioners who are new to the role of tracing and notifying sexual partners of those found to have sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, to:
• Understand the rationale and evidence base for partner notification
• Understand national guidelines, policies and protocols related to partner notification
• Understand the legal and ethical framework for partner notification
• Explore different partner notification strategies
• Develop the skills to negotiate partner notification with patients, and trace partners directly if required
• Assess outcomes and audit partner notification
 

• Positive Women Thoughts and Feelings
  

£15 for 25 copies

A booklet of writing and illustrations by a group of HIV positive women from Sheffield about their experiences of living with HIV - a useful resource in raising issues around HIV and AIDS.

Sheffield's training and resources - details and booking form