Hear About HIV First Hand

posted: 24/11/2009

Often the best support comes from people who have the same kind of experiences. For people who do not have HIV, hearing people who do have HIV talk about their experiences can be powerful, help end misunderstandings and prevent stigma and discrimination.

The websiite Healthtalkonline's HIV section lets you find out about other people's experiences of HIV. You can watch or listen to videos of a wide mix of people living with HIV, read about their experiences and find reliable useful information about HIV, treatment choices and support.

Healthtalkonline is from the charity Dipex and is based on research into people’s experiences, led by experts at the University of Oxford. These personal stories help people with HIV, families and healthcare professionals, and the whole public to benefit from other people’s experiences.
 

Healthtalkonline has sections for many other conditions, as well as HIV, for example, depression.

HIV at HealthTalkOnline
They interviewed 50 people about their experiences of HIV infection and this is all organised into topics
It also has a section with information resources and a forum. Like many of the health forums on this site, the HIV forum is hardly used; anyone can read questions and comments, and to ask a question or reply, you need to register and log-in.
 

A more popular forum for people with HIV

A far more popular UK HIV+ people’s forum is run by a man with HIV, Hortilad
This has almost 1000 members and is active - 358 Posts on 182 Topics. You can see what the Hortilad HIV+ forum looks like here.
To use the Hortilad forum you need you to register, by choosing a user ID (made of any letters and numbers), a user name (shown on the forum when you post), and a valid email address (tick the box when you sign up, to keep your email address hidden).
 

Click here for HealthTalkOnline HIV Topics
 

Experiences of health care :
Getting a diagnosis
Getting health and social care
Making decisions about treatment
Taking anti-HIV drugs
Challenges of anti-HIV drugs

Looking after yourself :
Coping with mental health problems
Dealing with your thoughts
Talking about it
Becoming informed
Gaining power and strength
Spirituality and religion
Holistic health

Disclosure, discrimination and other challenges :
Secrecy and telling people
Support groups
Dealing with difficulties, finances and benefits
Work and routine
Prejudice, stigma and discrimination
Telling children and parents

Negotiating Sex :
How people became infected
Casual sexual encounters
Sex in relationships
Telling sexual partners

Looking ahead :
Living now & in the future
Illness and death
Finally, what people with HIV want you to know

 

The USA's Positive Project has more than 100 first-person stories told by people infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. 
On their site you can pick videos of positive speakers by gender, age, where they live, ethnicity, sexuality, topic.

 

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