HIV and Children Booklet
posted: 14/01/2010
NAM have a new version of their information booklet, HIV & Children. HIV & Children provides the latest information about HIV treatment and care for children living with HIV.
It's free for people living with HIV in the UK.
Other people can buy a copy from the online bookshop for £1.
Free to read online
It can also be read free online or you can download a free copy as a pdf file you can then print out.
Copies for clinics and HIV organisations
If you work in a clinic or support group in the UK, you can order these booklets for free. Get in touch with Rose for details on 020 7840 0060 or by emailing Rose.
All NAM's booklets
read any booklet online
download any booklet as a free pdf file
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Free Computer and Internet for Children
posted: 14/01/2010
Want a grant from the government of up to £528 for a computer and internet access? Grants are now available for low income families with children living in England who don’t have access to the internet. This includes people on NASS or UK Border Agency Support.
Depending on what you need, you can get up to £528 to spend on a computer (the computer type could be a lap-top, desk-top, or net-book), and the cost of one year’s internet access.
Who can get this?
You need children in school years 3 to 9. This will normally mean children who are from 7 to 14 years old, at a state school.
It’s for families with lower incomes. This means
- if your child has free school meals OR
- you receive income support OR
- you get income-based Job Seekers Allowance OR
- you get child tax credit OR
- you get income-based Employment Support Allowance OR
- you get NASS or UK Border Agency support while claiming asylum (but not section 4 support) [It has to be ‘support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999’]
How to claim
- Ring the helpline for parents 0333 200 1004 for an application form. They will ask you some simple questions to check you can claim.
- Fill in the application form and send it with proof
- You get a decision within 3 weeks (and your proof documents returned – The decision will either be
- No, OR
- send more information, OR
- Yes
If Yes, approved, you will get
- a Notice of Entitlement
- Instructions on how to get the computer and internet
- They tell you who can supply the computer and internet package
- A Home Access Grant payment card preloaded with the money
- A PIN number (in another letter)
You then contact the supplier you choose to get the computer and internet package.
The rules are explained in more detail here
Companies offering the Home Access computer scheme
You can only get compter and internet access through companies that are part of the scheme. So far these include
How many people can get these grants?
The scheme will run for the next 18 months but there is a maximum of 270,000 grants available, one per household. We think the grants could run out quickly.
How to apply?
Call 0333 200 1004
Details at Home Access.
Please tell people who don’t have computers, who have school age children.
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Children, Immigration and HIV Training
posted: 12/01/2010
There are three training and study days for people working to support children and families affected by immigration and HIV.
Immigration and HIV study day
The Children and Young People HIV Network is holding an Immigration and HIV study day, on Thursday 18th February 2010, in London.
The aim of the day is
- to explain the official language and systems, and
- to provide workers with the information needed to effectively support children and families living with HIV who are inside and outside the asylum system.
There will be speakers from National AIDS Trust, Children's Society and the No Recourse to Public Funds Network.
It’s in central London, at Body and Soul, which is just 5-10 minutes walk from Euston station.
10.30am – 2.30pm on Thursday 18 February
£25 with lunch included
Please book using the attached form, which has more information.
Immigration and Asylum training
The Impact of Immigration and Asylum on children and Young People Living with HIV
York (venue to be confirmed), Tuesday 9 March 2010
9.30 am – 4.30pm
£95 with lunch included
Or in London (venue to be confirmed), Tuesday 23 March 2010, at the same times and cost.
Please book using the attached form which has more information.
This one day training course will explore issues surrounding working with children and families who have unsure immigration status and are living with HIV. The programme will include
- current challenges in practice,
- providing practical ways in which professionals can strive to meet the needs of this group across the sectors and will also
- combine current policy, legislation and practice issues.
The workshop format will encourage and facilitate sharing experience and best practice.
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Training for Councils - No Recourse to Public Funds
posted: 21/12/2009
A full day's training for councils on their legal duties to support people and families with ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) is provided by the NRPF Network along with London’s Islington Council. A significant number of migrants with HIV in NW England are subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds rules. Some NW England councils apply the rules very harshly or refuse to even accept they have any legal duty to assess people or help. Other councils do their duty well.
The training
- focuses on good practice in assessing and supporting people with NRPF
- provides an overview of relevant legislation and case-law and
- invites participants to explore other factors to be considered where immigration status impacts on entitlements to services in the UK.
Since April 2009, there have been 17 of these sessions for councils and voluntary sector organisations across the UK and the feedback is very positive.
The full details of the training days are on the NRPF microsite and any requests or enquiries can be made by email
In NW England councils vary widely in how well they perform meet their legal duties towards people with HIV under these rules.
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Children’s HIV Mental Support
posted: 27/11/2009
Ways to meet children’s mental health support needs before, during, and after a parent (or other close relative) dies with HIV, are given in a new international review from aidsmap / NAM.
It's written for resource-limited settings, but the how-to advice is excellent for children here and everywhere. Most useful in the UK are sections on ‘addressing grief and bereavement,’ checking for childhood mental health problems, and basic and more advanced ways to support children affected by HIV-related deaths.
A useful overview to helping children cope with death and grief the review recommends is the recently published guide Children’s Palliative Care in Africa, (download the whole book free - the only price to pay is taking part in a quick survey).
One chapter in this book provides advice about
- making memory boxes (to collect items that remind them of the person who has died and times they shared)
- making a family record to help a child or young person gain a sense of where they and the person who has died fits into the family. This is particularly important when a child is to be removed from their old home, or separated from siblings or cousins, and hence when there is a danger of losing a sense of his or her ‘roots’
- telling the story by helping the child write or tell (with an adult writing) their story so that they remember clearly what happened — which can provide carers an ideal opportunity to pick up misconceptions and misunderstandings
- handprints: a print of their hand and their parents and other loved one’s touching
- writing a “children’s will”: children are sure to have some items that they treasure and they might have a clear idea of what they wish to happen to these
- permanency planning so that children have a clear idea about what will happen to them (if they are bereaved)
- a “bereavement tree” (a practical tool that sensitises people to the feelings and behaviours of individuals and expectations of society, to create awareness about bereavement in order to encourage community support to all bereaved people — there is an appendix with this tool in the book.
The book also highlights the importance of spiritual development (as well as play), and describes a number of beliefs and practices surrounding death in Africa.
Another fine resource
Some other useful resources can be found in the April 2009 issue of Together Now, the newsletter of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in India, including using art therapy for children and child-centred counselling. The article also usefully describes different mental health screening tools for children.
Children’s Palliative Care in Africa
download the whole book free here
The international review After my parents died: The effect of HIV on the mental health of children: a clinical review
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