YouTube - Criminalise Hate not HIV

posted: 03/12/2010

Criminalise HATE not HIV is a new vid on YouTube, from the people at the UK HIV Stigma Index.

This film was shot by an incredible bunch of creative people including many from the UK HIV Stigma Index and something magical happened. We hope you enjoy it.
It has already had over 3000 hits.

Please share the vid
The Criminalise Hate not HIV video is part of the work by people involved with the UK HIV Stigma Index over the last 18 months. Please help promote this by putting it on your own facebook page, tweeting the link, emailing it to friends, or putting it on your website. All you have to do is visit the YouTube video and then click the Share button below the video and this lets you to add it to facebook, Twitter or send emails.

Working on next video – Verdict on a Virus
They are already working on a a short documentary 'Verdict on a Virus', to highlight the prosecution of people with HIV - editing this next video is already underway and it will be out soon.
 

UK HIV Stigma Index

Help Give Stigma the Index Finger

posted: 10/11/2010

People living with HIV can help give HIV stigma the index finger on World AIDS Day, at a George House Trust event for people with HIV from the whole of North West England. The UK part of the HIV Stigma Index already has details on hundreds of people's stigma experiences.

Time for thinking and action

Now it is time to share the findings and look at what we can do as individuals and together to tackle HIV-related stigma.
 

The People Living With HIV STIGMA Index is an international effort of people living with HIV recording and campaigning against HIV stigma and prejudice.
 

Where, When

Wednesday 1 December

10.30am – 2pm
 

George House Trust, 77 Ardwick Green North, Manchester, M12 6FX
 

Lunch, Travel, Crèche

• Lunch included
• We will pay reasonable travel costs to people on a low income
• Crèche spaces at this event are limited and must be booked.

To find out more about this event or to book a crèche space please e-mail Lynda Shentall Director of Services, or ring her on 0161 274 4499.

Give Stigma the Index Finger UK report

HIV Prejudice Evidence

posted: 13/09/2010

More detailed information about HIV stigma, prejudice and discrimination against people living with HIV in the UK is now becoming available. 857 people with HIV took part in the UK part of an international survey the The People Living with HIV Stigma Index.

The first UK results were reported in Give Stigma the Index Finger.
All the HIV prejudice, stigma and discrimination evidence is grouped into main themes 

• health settings
• exclusion
• disclosure decisions
• diagnosis experiences
• disclosure experiences
• self-stigma
• rights and laws
• effecting change.

Now the UK workers on the Index want to help people understand and use the wealth of detail that was collected about HIV prejudice and discrimination. All the data (anonymised of course) is in a computer database and they have done some more detailed analysis, and produced a computer tool to crunch the numbers, find relevant comments and produce fully detailed evidence. The idea is to use these to inform and train organisations to help end HIV prejudice and discrimination.

There’s now a presentation report called questionnaire, pointers and qualitative exploration that explains this. ‘Pointers’ is the name of their tool for detailed computer analysis. Starting on page 29 there are four presentations, to illustrate how people can make use of all the data in the UK index.

The index covers discrimination in

• family planning and pregnancy
• housing and UK residency
• employment
• family and friends
• mental health
• dental health
• faith and religions
• doctors in general practice.

Questionnaires, Pointers and Qualitative Exploration presentation with examples

Help UK HIV Stigma Index

posted: 26/04/2010

The People Living with HIV Stigma Index in the UK uses the experience of 867 people with HIV to track stigma and discrimination. The UK report – Give HIV Stigma the Index Finger came out late in 2009.  Now you can help once again.

They want a small group of people to join a steering group to help manage the UK project, and they also want your thoughts on how to promote the repoort at the 2010 World AIDS Conference this summer in Austria.

Making the most of the World AIDS Conference 

Presentations, posters, panel discussions can all be used. This is your opportunity to shout out to Europe and the rest of world about the UK Stigma Index report and the challenges and opportunities it reveals about overcoming stigma and living with HIV here in the UK. If you want to take part please email Alistair and ask to be included in the email discussion. This will be during the first week of May, from Sunday 2nd until Sunday 9th.
 

Join the UK Steering Group

Volunteers are also wanted for the core steering group that guides the work of the UK HIV stigma index. They want a small and committed group of people, living with HIV, who know about the UK stigma index, to represent different regions and organisations around the UK.
The steering group will be responsible for the strategic overview, priority setting and vision. This will help ensure that the work is based on the diverse community of people living with HIV across the UK, and that we use the index to deal with and overcome stigma.
Time – maximum one hour a week, with a telephone conference call every 1-2 months but they are keen for people with passion, commitment and vision.
 

Apply by email by Friday 30 April

If you would like to be part of this group, email a short paragraph to Alastair by this Friday 30 April, and say :

• Why you would like to be involved
• Which organisation and region you represent (and that they support your involvement in the steering group)  
• Confirm that you commit to being involved until the next World AIDS Conference.

Give HIV Stigma the Index Finger report 2009

HIV Stigma Index 
 

Alarming HIV Stigma in UK

posted: 30/11/2009

A damning report into the levels of stigma faced by people with HIV in the UK has led to calls for the government to produce a fresh strategy for HIV stigma and discrimination.
 

1 in 5 last year

One in five people with an HIV diagnosis have been harassed, threatened or verbally assaulted in the past 12 months.

Many report ignorance and prejudice from the medical professions, particularly from GPs and dentists. One in five reported being refused medical treatment because they had HIV.

Just 40% confidence in medical confidentiality
In findings to be unveiled in parliament, The People Living With HIV Stigma Index, a two-year research project funded by the Department for International Development and the International Planned Parenthood Federation, found that only 39% of people felt confident that their medical records were being kept confidential, with 18% saying their HIV status had been revealed without their consent.

The UK report is Give Stigma the Index Finger.

More now ignorant

Lisa Power, head of policy at the Terrence Higgins Trust, said that the public was more ignorant about HIV than a decade ago. "This research is really important because it's about people's perception of the prejudice they face. We did have a good education programme in this country, but that's all gone to pot. The UK has slipped from being a shining beacon of HIV prevention programming and education, to being behind everyone else in Europe."

"While the General Dental Council gives its members quite clear advice on HIV, we still have dentists refusing to see patients or, which is quite common, asking them to wait until the end of the day for an appointment, apparently so the instruments can be sterilised twice. With far more contagious things around, like hepatitis C, it's an insult to anyone using a dentist's surgery if everything is not completely sterilised between each patient. People with HIV can lead long lives, have healthy children, but still they suffer higher levels of unemployment and relationship breakdown, more poverty, more depression and a lot of that is down to stigma, not to the actual virus."
 

Figures released on Friday by the Health Protection Agency showed the numbers of people living with HIV in the UK had reached an all-time high of 83,000, an 8% rise on the previous year. Around one in three of them do not know they have the virus.

HIV stigma, 2010 style
Even today, one London participant in the Stigma Index research said: "When the nurse put on two sets of gloves I was so humiliated – who taught her to do that?" Another woman, who lives in a small town in Wales, said that she used health services miles away from home to protect her child from gossip at school. "It would be round the town in a flash and yes, living with secrecy can be tough, but I think the stigma and ignorance would be far worse. Once you tell people, you can't take it back and it's too big a risk for me."

Battered by stigma
Alastair Hudson, 41, one of the researchers, was taken aback by the stories. "People feel battered by their experiences. It was a diversity of people, from all sorts of ages and backgrounds, up and down the country, but a lot of the stories were similar, people they were coming into contact with didn't understand even the basics of HIV. The advertising campaigns of the 80s had a profound effect and people were scared, but the epidemic has changed so much and people's knowledge hasn't. One guy said, 'HIV is a diagnosis, not a lifestyle choice'. We don't want to normalise the virus, but we do want to make sure it's not forgotten."

Challenging empowers 6 out of 10 people with HIV
However, the findings were not all negative. More than 60% of respondents said they felt they could change attitudes if they challenged discrimination. "The vast majority of people living with HIV, 84%, are also working to support each other. It was interesting that although 80-odd% of people knew where to go to access HIV support, only 23% did, which I think means people are empowered enough to look for their own support. There's far less of this victim thing than there was," said Hudson.

Campaigns and images for HIV prevention and testing, such as this 'have you been hit?' image, run the risk of stigmatising people with HIV. Great care is needed to avoid worsening the situation for HIV prevention, by increasing stigma. 

This campaign advert uses the cross-hair sights of a gun targeting an African-American man's head, and in doing so the image appears to accuse and blame him, and reinforces the outdated idea that HIV is a death sentence. It also invites a racist misinterpretation as endorsing lynching as a response to HIV infection. Associating guns and violent crime with black men reinforces racism and is wrong.

HIV prevention must start from the principle of 'first do no harm' to people with HIV and those at significant risk of HIV, like African-Americans.
 

Government HIV strategy call
The all-party parliamentary group on HIV and AIDS is now calling for a cross-departmental government strategy to tackle discrimination. Its chair, David Borrow MP, said: "Stigma is rife in Britain and the NHS has an opportunity to lead the way in tackling it. Discrimination on the grounds of a health condition is totally unacceptable anywhere, but the public sector has a special responsibility to treat everyone it serves with respect."
The Department produced a draft HIV stigma and discrimination action plan in December 2005, which was heavily criticised. This wasn’t revised and the National stigma and discrimination implementation plan appeared in mid 2007.

Andy Burnham, the health secretary, welcomed the report, which he will launch in the Commons today, Monday. "Effective treatments have transformed the lives of people with HIV and many more people with HIV can plan for their future with more certainty. But even in the UK, individuals and families affected by HIV can experience stigma and discrimination."

The UK report is Give Stigma the Index Finger.

Source
 

Department of Health anti-HIV stigma and discrimination Implementation Plan, 2007 

image credit - rejected for disclosure

image credit - and discussion of use of stigmatising HIV prevention campaigns