HIV Message to Social Services - Protect Funding
posted: 09/02/2011
Deborah Jack, the chief executive of National AIDS Trust, has now written to every director of adult social services, calling on them to protect spending for people with HIV.
We very recently reported (Disadvantage Affects HIV Futures) how much of a difference support to end people's social disadvantage makes to whether people live well with HIV, or fall ill and die early.
This multinational study showed that social disadvantage - poverty, class, gender, ethnicity - make a critical difference to how long and healthily people live with HIV. People nearer the bottom of the heap – because of low income, poverty and social disadvantages - get ill much sooner, and die much younger.
That’s why spending on HIV social care matters. It makes a clear difference in life and death.
Here’s what Deborah Jack wrote and told all the Social Services directors :
Dear Director
The importance of social care for people with HIV
Our chair, Dame Denise Platt, has asked me to write to you, in your capacity as director of adult social services, to highlight the vital importance of continuing to fund social care services for people living with HIV over the next year.
As you will know, the Aids Support Grant, which funded social care for people with HIV, is now part of councils' overall formula grant. However, AIDS support remains an identifiable allocation specifically calculated to enable you to meet the needs of people with HIV in your area. I am sure you will be aware how much your council has been allocated for 2011-12, We firmly believe that spending this allocation on services that meet the specific needs of people living with HIV will deliver value for money and be a cost-effective investment in the long term.
Social care for people with HIV provides a lifeline for many vulnerable people, enabling them to retain their independence and have as normal as possible life. The government has clearly identified this as a primary aim and has acknowledged the continuing need for HIV social care and the necessity to protect these services through the continued existence of a specific and distinct amount of money with its own allocation formula.
Investing in HIV social care services has long-term benefits both in terms of the council's finances, but also for the health of your local population. Good-quality social care is an essential part of keeping people well and avoiding expensive hospital in-patient care and more complex and costly community support. The closer liaison between yourselves and the local NHS as we go forwards only goes to further increase the benefits of the continued funding of HIV social care.
A reduction in HIV social care services will also have public health implications which, with the council's forthcoming public health role, should be taken into consideration when determining funding now. Research shows that when people with HIV are suffering from depression and other forms of psychological distress they are less likely to adhere to their HIV treatment. Non-adherence not only impacts on the individual's own health but also on the health of others, as they become more infectious and therefore there is a greater risk they will pass the virus on, creating further demands for local health and social care services.
HIV social care provides a wide range of services including counselling, peer support, support for carers, respite care and support for children and young people affected by HIV. Many of these services are provided by small community-based voluntary organisations who deliver value above and beyond the direct cost of the services. As well as delivering support these organisations often provide a voice for people living with HIV at a local level, but a reduction in short-term funding for HIV social care services by the council may well threaten their future viability.
I hope that the issues I have highlighted above will serve to convince you of the importance of using the money allocated to 'HIV/AIDS support' within the formula grant to continue to fund essential social care support for people living with HIV. If you would like to discuss any of these matters further please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Yours sincerely,
Deborah Jack
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