GHT's Trustees agree a Strategic Partnership Position Statement

posted: 02/06/2011

This position statement comes during the worst economic recession to impact on the voluntary sector in the UK in living history. As a consequence, many charities face significant funding cuts, some have already ceased trading and up to 50% of charities in the UK are not expected to survive the recession.

The Trustees of George House Trust (GHT) are particularly concerned about the future of HIV social care services for people living with HIV across the North West of England.There is a real danger that the strong legacy of the HIV social care sector could be lost.

GHT’s Trustees believe that it is vital that HIV social care provision is maintained for all people living with HIV.In order to achieve this, charities within the HIV sector in the North West, and across the UK if necessary, will need to explore dynamic and creative ways of working together strategically.

This work could take a number of forms: from greater sharing of information and knowledge through to pooling resources, joint funding applications, influencing commissioners, forming consortia in order to win contracts and mergers.

GHT welcomes opportunities to explore new ways of working with highly regarded charities within the HIV sector. This will help to ensure the survival of HIV social care services within the North West. 

Anyone requesting further details should contact our Chief Executive Rosie Robinson.

HIV Caring

posted: 17/05/2010

LGF are launching support for lgbt people who are caring for others, including partners and friends with HIV. As part of the service you will be able to go online and find information to help you as an LGBT carer, keep up to date with relevant news and events, and interact with other carers who understand how you feel.

Online support

You will also be able to find useful links to services in your area that are LGBT friendly and there to support you. This online service will be completely safe and confidential for everyone. Take a look at LGF's new Carers webpages, when this is launched at the end of this month.  

Meeting others
For some carers, physically meeting others face-to-face is a good way of getting the information and support that you need. So there will be a support group launched in Manchester on Wednesday 16th June from 5.30pm – 7.30pm, for carers to come along to – either as a one-off drop in to pick up information, or for more regular support. This group will understand your needs as an LGBT carer and can be your first step into other LGBT friendly services to support you. The support group will meet at The Lesbian and Gay Foundation, 105-107 Princess Street, Manchester

More information
contact Glenn Street on 0161 234 4254. He’s part of Manchester Council’s Carers team.

Support group launch 5.30-7.30PM Wednesday 16th June
@ The Lesbian and Gay Foundation, 105-107 Princess Street, Manchester
After this launch event the regular carers support group meetings will take place on the last Monday of each month.

A new lgbt carers website will be launched at the end of May and this will include the online forum

The website and forum will offer information, links to local services, news and events listings, and a place for LGBT carers to interact with others who understand how they feel. This online service will be completely safe and confidential.
 

Partners, friends and family helping?

posted: 04/05/2010

Many people with HIV get valuable help and encouragement from partners, friends, family, neighbours and others - just some of the 6 million carers in the UK. In Manchester alone, 55,000 carers provide unpaid support for a relative, friend or neighbour - so isn't it time that carers receive the support they need?
 

Coming Soon

There’s training, a support group, and a carers week event happening soon, other help and support for people who help their partner, friend, neighbour, workmate, or family member.
 

Free training for carers
The Lesbian and Gay Foundation are offering the Department of Health backed Caring with Confidence programme, which is in seven parts. You choose which of the three hour sessions you want to attend. For more information email Annie Emery, Caring with Confidence Project Manager, or ring her on 0161 235 8024

LGBT Carers support group and online in June
A new support group and interactive online forum are on their way to offer support and information to unpaid carers who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans in North West England. Launching in June 2010 - for more information about these services, call Manchester Carers Centre on 0161 835 4090.

Carers Week at Manchester Town Hall
Monday 14th June, 10.00am- 3.00pm, The Great Hall, Manchester Town Hall
The day will include over 80 carers service provider information stalls, carers assessments, live entertainment, pampering treatments, informative workshops, special guests and a free cream tea. All carers who register on the day will be entered into a free prize draw. For further information please contact Glenn Street on 0161 234 4254.
 

Manchester Carers information booklet      download the whole booklet here

This information has been written to provide essential information for carers and those who work with carers in Manchester. It is a tool with which every carer should be equipped in order to find out about their rights, vital services, benefits and much more. The information has been co-ordinated by Manchester City Council's Directorate for Adults and has been supported by the Carers Strategy Group. You can read the same information online here

Each Council provides services and support for Carers - check the Social Services / Adult Services part of your own local council's wesbite.

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Person Supporter?

posted: 06/04/2010

Do you provide support to someone, or does someone help support you? Partners, friends, neighbours, family and others, may be helping support people with HIV – and the people doing the supporting may themselves have HIV. Support means anything from collecting a prescription, to full time care of someone who is unable to look after themselves.
 

The LGBT Consortium of voluntary organisations is asking for the views and needs of LGBT people who are involved in supporting and caring for other people.
 

If you are an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans) person with caring needs or responsibilities, they want to hear from you, no matter how little you may think you help.
 

Online LGBT Caring Survey, where you can talk about your experiences.
 

HIV people supporters

We know that there is a lot of informal caring and supporting going on around HIV - mainly friends and partners looking out for each other and giving a hand when it's needed. Many have HIV and are looking after other positive friends and mates. 

Your answers will help councils buy and provide better services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans carers / people supporters. We are keen to make sure the needs of people looking after / supporting HIV positive lgbt people are counted - HIV is usually invisible in services for people who help support their partners and friends.

 
There are two questionnaires – one for the people doing the supporting and caring and one for the people getting the support and care.
Online LGBT Caring Survey, where you can talk about your experiences.
 

More about the survey www.lgbtconsortium.org.uk/carers
 

Clinics Contact Tracing Recent HIV Works

posted: 08/07/2009

Contact tracing people with acute (very recent) HIV infection leads to diagnosing others with HIV, such as newly infected partners, say investigators from North Carolina, USA, in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Contact tracing of people with acute, or new, HIV finds more people with HIV who are undiagnosed than tracing the contacts of people who have had HIV for a while - what medics call chronic HIV infection.

1 in 4 partners of newly infected people were also newly infected

A quarter of the partners of people with acute HIV infection contacted were also found to have acute infection.

“Identifying persons with acute HIV infection is vital to controlling the spread of HIV. Phylogenetic and epidemiological analyses among other populations have demonstrated the crucial role this group plays in forward transmission,” comment the investigators.

How they did the study

In 2002, the North Carolina Department of Public Health began using nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) to identify individuals with acute HIV infection. The theory they wanted to test was that people with new (acute) HIV infection would be able to identify more of their sex / drug using partners than people infected longer ago.

To test this idea, they compared the number of partners found by contact-tracing services for both people with new and older HIV infections. The period of the study was 2002 to 2007.

Contact details collected next day

People with acute HIV infection were interviewed by trained counsellors within a day of their diagnosis, whereas those with established HIV infection were seen within an average of a week of diagnosis. People with new infection were asked to name their sexual partners for the past six months, and those with established HIV were asked to name partners for the whole year before.

They compared the results from 120 people with a new HIV infection and 9044 people who had HIV for some time.

What they found

People with new HIV reported a median of two partners in the six months before interview, whereas those with established infection reported a median of one partner. About half of the named partners who were contacted had previously taken a HIV test. A quarter of the contacted partners already knew they were HIV-positive.

They found that the partners of people with new HIV infection were more likely to be tested than the partners of patients with established infection. There wasn't much difference in the proportions of partners becoming newly diagnosed after contact tracing, between men with new HIV themselves and men with longer term HIV infection (twelve of 264 [5%] vs 468 of 7899 [6%]).

However, of these newly-diagnosed partners with acute infection, 25% were also found to have acute infection, compared to below 1% of partners of individuals with established infection. If you want to find people with acute HIV infection, testing the partners of the newly infected makes sense. People with new (acute) HIV infection are far, far more infectious than people infected a few months or years before.

Twice the names remembered with acute HIV

Statistical analysis showed that people with acute HIV named over twice as many total named partners as did those with chronic HIV infection.

Moreover, 9% of the partners of individuals recently infected with HIV were themselves HIV-positive compared to 5% of the partners of patients who had HIV infection for a year of more. This difference was significant (p = 0.03).

The investigators calculated that acutely infected individuals identified 1.93 times as many newly diagnosed partners than did individuals with established HIV infection.

“This is the first population-based study to demonstrate that persons with acute HIV infection identify higher numbers of named partners per index case than persons with established infections,” write the investigators. They add, “persons with acute HIV infection also have a higher proportion of partners who get tested for HIV.”

Urgent contact tracing of people with new HIV works well

“The results of this analysis”, conclude the authors, “lend additional support for routine identification of acute HIV infections as a means to increase the number of partners reached by [contact tracing] and the number of new infections identified.”

Reference
Moore ZS et al. Number of named partners and number of partners newly diagnosed with HIV infection identified by persons with acute versus established HIV infection. J Acquire Immune Defic Syndr (online edition), 2009.

Source