Weekends Away with Baseline

posted: 17/05/2010

Eat, sleep, walk, relax is the invitation Baseline offer for three holiday weekends for people living with HIV. Pick a weekend on the Gower peninsular in South Wales, in the Lake District, or in Snowdonia in North Wales.

Want to meet other people with HIV or do something relaxing and healthy for a change? How does 2 days in some of Britain’s beauty spots sound?

What's offered - and what's not

Daytime guided walks and nature talks. Night time eats and drinks.
The weekends are subsidised and each weekend costs £75. For this you will get two nights accommodation in an exclusively booked venue, breakfast on both Saturday and Sunday, three course evening meal on Saturday night. Plus tea, coffee and squash. Two days of guided walks, all group safety kit.

Not included: Personal drinks, you also need to take two dishes of food for the buffet for Friday night, arrange yourself a packed lunch for Saturday, take walking clothes / trainers / boots, and make your own way to the weekend's location. However, if transport is difficult please contact them as they may be able to arrange car shares from Manchester / NW England for you.
 

Booking - be quick
More details and online booking or by phone from Gareth 07779 040 396, or Robert on 07886 159 735
 

There are a limited number of places, and the bookings are all first come, first served, so book early.

Where and When?
Gower peninsular, near Swansea, South Wales September 10-12th 2010
When we posted this news item there were 7 places left for this weekend.

Gower holiday information      

More details Baseline Weekends and what you can expect to happen each day.

Get Health Insurance for Isle of Man or Channel Islands

posted: 26/01/2010

Anyone travelling to either the Channel Islands or Isle of Man, especially people with HIV, should get health insurance. The UK government cancelled the deal with the Channel Islands in April last year which allowed UK people to use the health service on the Islands free. From April 1st this year the deal is cancelled for people going to the Isle of Man.
 

EU health travel cards won't help

EU travel cards won’t work in the islands either, which are not part of the UK, nor part of the EU.
 

Anyone needing health care will either have to have health insurance or have to pay the full cost. The only treatment you will be able to have without insurance is at an Island hospital Accident and Emergency department but this will not include hospital admission to a ward.
 

Travel Insurance for people with HIV - links and click through to Next page for more

Source 
 

 

Gay Euro-break Risks

posted: 23/12/2009

A study of HIV rates among gay men in some European cities shows much higher rates of HIV than in England. HIV transmission is a bigger risk for men taking popular foreign city-breaks, because men often let down their guard when on holiday, and it is often difficult to discuss sexual risks, unless you are fluent in other European languages.
 

The study used anonymous oral HIV tests and a simple questionnaire on the gay scene in Barcelona, Spain; Bratislava, Slovakia; Bucharest, Romania; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Prague, Czech Republic; and Verona, Italy – similar to a study on the gay scenes of Manchester, London and Brighton, a few years ago.

Manchester and Barcelona

In Manchester and the other English cities study we found 1 in 10 gay men had HIV (and around 3 out of 10 men with HIV did not yet know this). In this new European study Barcelona had a far higher rate of HIV – 17%, not far off twice the rate in the English cities. In Verona, Italy, the rate was 12%. However in Prague the rate was 3%. HIV rates were much higher in Southern Europe than in Eastern Europe.
 

Men reported different amounts of HIV risk taking in the European cities. 67% of men in Barcelona and by 36% of men in Prague reported using condoms with a casual partner. Men in Barcelona and Verona had the highest number of reported casual partners (a mean of 16 and 12 respectively), with lower numbers reported by men in Eastern Europe (a mean of 6 and 8 respectively).
 

NW gay men importing HIV

Looking at NW England’s HIV statistics, we know that Spain was where at least 52 people got HIV, followed by Portugal (20), France (13) and Germany (13), and Italy (12) and the Canaries (8).
 

Gay men in England need to take good care to neither export nor import HIV while enjoying themselves abroad.
 

Source

HIV bio-behavioural survey among men who have sex with men in Barcelona, Bratislava, Bucharest, Ljubljana, Prague and Verona, 2008-09. Eurosurveillance 48: 41, 2009.
 

Holidays Planning

posted: 17/12/2008

Many people find that the Christmas and New Year holidays provide a welcome and enjoyable mid-winter break. HIV services will close for part or all of the holiday period.
 

HIV Clinics - enough pills?

Although you should check details with your own clinic, it is likely that all specialist HIV treatment centres will close on the afternoon of Wednesday 24th December and will not reopen until Monday 29th December, closing again for the New Year holiday on Wednesday 31st December and reopening on Friday 2nd January.
 

It is therefore important to make sure you have enough medication to last you over the holiday period as obtaining further supplies is likely to be very difficult. Get in touch with your clinic now if you think you need to see your doctor or need more supplies of HIV drugs. If you need medical help when your clinic is closed, you should contact your GP, go to a walk-in centre, or in an emergency go to your local hospital casualty (A&E) department.
 

HIV services - council and community

You are likely to find that all HIV services provided both by local authorities and the voluntary sector will close early on 24th December, and will not reopen until the 29th December at the earliest. In addition, the New Year break will mean early closing on 31st December until the morning of 2nd January.
However, you may find that many services will close on Christmas Eve and remain shut until 2nd January, or possibly the following Monday, 5th January. George House Trust closes between 3pm on Wednesday 24 December, until 9am Friday 2 January.

Even when service providers are open between Christmas and the New Year they may be able to offer little more than a very basic service. If you use HIV services, enquire before the holiday period about their opening times.
 

Money and benefits

It's very easy to spend a lot of money at Christmas, but life goes on after the festive period and a major cause of the January blues is over-spending in December.
Money can be especially important to consider if you are on a low income or live on benefits. Benefit offices will also close for Christmas and the New Year holidays and if you are entitled to benefits over the holiday period these should be paid in advance. It is important to budget your money, as you will not be entitled to any further payments until after the New Year.
 

Heat, light and hot water

If you have a prepayment meter card for gas or electric, make sure you have enough credit on the card before the holiday. Shops which can charge these cards may be closed.

Everyday issues

Hopefully you'll enjoy the holiday period. But many people, regardless of their HIV status, find Christmas a difficult time to cope with. You may find that being HIV-positive either makes these problems worse or creates additional ones. For example, adherence to your HIV treatment might be more difficult, particularly if you find that your normal routine is interrupted or disrupted in some way. In addition, spending time with people who do not know that you have HIV might mean that you are questioned about your pill taking.

Overdoing things

Food and drink are traditionally one of the pleasures of the mid-winter holidays, but it can be easy to overdo things. Christmas and New Year is also a season of parties, and for some people this means taking recreational drugs. If you are planning to take drugs, it makes good sense to think about how to do this as safely as possible.

Mid-winter blues?

Christmas can be a time when people get together. This is often rewarding, but can also have stresses and strains. Some people find Christmas quite a lonely time of year, and emotional distress and depression are experienced by some people. Depression is relatively common among people with HIV and although drinking large amounts of alcohol and taking drugs may seem to offer a short-term escape, they will probably make things worse.
Many people relax their inhibitions during holiday periods and Christmas and the New Year are no exception. It makes good sense to think about your sexual health over this period - the first two weeks in January are often one of the busiest times of the year in sexual health clinics.
 

Support and helplines

Although most face-to-face services will be closed, some HIV specific and other telephone helplines are open over the holiday period. Some are open as normal while others are open reduced hours. Details of some are listed below. Please note that they may have reduced opening times, or be closed completely, over the holiday period.
 

THT Direct          0845 1221 200
THT Direct is a specialist HIV telephone information and advice service provided by the Terrence Higgins Trust. THT Direct is usually open 10am-10pm Monday to Friday and 12-6pm at weekends.
It will be closed on the 25th and 26th December and 1st January but will be open for shorter than normal hours on the other days (10am-4pm on 24th, 29th, 30th and 31st December, 12-4pm on 27th and 28th December).
 

African AIDS Helpline       0800 0967 500
The African AIDS Helpline is a telephone support and information service provided by the Black Health Agency and staffed by African men and women. The service is open 10am-6pm Monday to Friday.
It will be closed on the 25th and 26th of December and the 1st of January, but otherwise is open as normal throughout the holiday period.
 

NHS Direct        0845 4647
A service which provides 24 hour confidential health information. It is open every day of the year.
 

The Samaritans       0845 790 9090
The Samaritans helpline is open 24 hours every day of the year. The Samaritans are available to anybody who is lonely or depressed and feel that they have no one else to turn to for support or anybody who is going through a personal crisis and thinking of taking their life.
 

Sexual Healthline       0800 567 123
This is a 24 hour national phoneline and will be open throughout the holiday period offering confidential advice, information and referrals on all aspects of sexual health and HIV to anyone.
 

acknowledgements to NAM's Weekly Update