HIV ‘Inbetweeners’ and ‘Misfits’

posted: 21/02/2011

Life in my shoes challenges the stigma and prejudice around HIV and corrects misunderstandings about HIV transmission and treatment.It's a new campaign aimed at teenagers and families affected by HIV, organised by the London family HIV charity Body and Soul.

Life in My Shoes is fronted by actors from the popular television shows The Inbetweeners and Misfits, to appeal to teenage interests, and it offers young people exciting opportunities.

Could you be their star?
Life in my Shoes is a film which will be distributed to secondary schools. The campaign has begun with a competition to find a young person to star in the film. There’s a short script about HIV misconceptions and prejudices. You upload your auditions to the online gallery.

Help spread the word about Life in my Shoes - visit the website, and encourage young people to join the competition. The competition is for all between 14-21 who have stars in their eyes to be on screen, whether or not your life has been affected by HIV.

You can audition and star without saying anything about whether or how HIV affects you.

Young people with or affected by HIV should check the other wannabe stars in the audition gallery. It is a treat to see young people, who may not have thought much about HIV previously, reading the script and showing support for young people whose lives are touched by HIV.

Audition and upload

Upload you audition using their script before Thursday 17 March – St Patrick’s Day
 

Life in my Shoes  is a response to findings from research commissioned by Body & Soul and undertaken by OPM into the attitudes of teenagers to HIV.

Download their report Attitudes to HIV among 12-18 years olds in London 
 

HIV Teenagers to Adults

posted: 21/02/2011

Older teenagers with HIV are our HIV pioneers because they are the first generation of young people growing up with HIV. Being the first at anything is often exciting, but with HIV it can be much less fun and more of a struggle.
 

Making the change better

The Children and Young People HIV Network are working to make it easier to move from being a teenager with HIV to being an adult with HIV.

Young people with HIV have two main challenges 

• growing up from a child to adult with HIV (e.g. beginnning sex and relationships with HIV)
• moving from children's HIV clinic and education, into adult HIV services and employment or claiming benefits with HIV.

The Children and Young People’s HIV Network have now finished checking all the expert articles and books about changing from child to adult with HIV in a ‘literature review’.

They looked to learn lessons about improving the change from child to adult, including learning from experience with other conditions like diabetes and epilespy.

The HIV child to adult change literature review is here 

The review 

• has statistics about young people with HIV in the UK
• finds existing policies and guidelines for the child to adult change
• looks for useful lessons from other longterm conditions, like diabetes
• considers the needs of carers and family
• considers rural areas with very low numbers of young people with HIV.

Professionals tell us

Last week we pointed out the useful article where HIV health workers describe helping teenagers to make the change from child to adult with HIV, which is in the 200th issue of HIVTreatment Update.

Teens talking life with HIV
Two young people making these changes talk about their own lives. JD Bailey (20, female) talks about growing up with HIV, and Max, (19, male) talks about telling others about HIV
 

‘Transition of care from a paediatric to adult setting is not specific to HIV … However there are important differences … with HIV which may make this process more difficult’  Lyall, 2007.

Don't Forget the Children

posted: 16/12/2008

After a teenager died in Luton still untested, undiagnosed teenagers and children were the focus for the Children's HIV Association Conference earlier this month. The conference looked into learning the lessons from this.

There is a small but significant number of older children and teenagers who are untested and some are undiagnosed. This is not in a child's best interests as the Luton death demonstrates. What needs doing?

The presentations from the conference are now available on the BHIVA website.

• Introduction: Why are we here? Dr Chris Wood, North Middlesex University Hospital, London
• The UK epidemiology of undiagnosed HIV infection in Children Dr Pat Tookey, Institute of Child Health
• The Luton data: do parents get their children tested? Dr Michael Eisenhut
• Late diagnosis of perinatally acquired HIV Dr Katia Prime, St George's Hospital NHS Trust, London
• Consequences of undiagnosed HIV in children Dr Hermione Lyall, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London
• Children's rights: a legal overview Professor Jane Fortin, University of Sussex
• Safeguarding children: what if parents won't test the children? Ms Sally Parma, Safeguarding and Quality Assurance Service, London Borough of Enfield
• A straightforward approach to testing children for HIV Dr Djamel Hamadache, Chelsea and Westminister Hospital, London
• Case studies: barriers to testing - difficult situations and successes Dr Justin Daniels, North Middlesex University Hospital, London
• National HIV testing guidelines 2008 Dr Adrian Palfreeman, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
• Getting to grips with testing children: protocols and procedures Dr Justin Daniels, North Middlesex University Hospital, London
• Spreading the word: developing best practice, and setting standards Dr Chris Wood, North Middlesex University Hospital, London