CHAPS Opens to Gay Men

posted: 13/12/2010

A central website for gay men’s HIV prevention in England has opened. Most HIV prevention for gay and bi men in this country is done by CHAPS, a network of organisations, that includes LGF in Manchester and Terrence Higgins Trust.

CHAPS has worked for more than a dozen years on HIV prevention and better sexual health for gay and bi men in England and gets its funding from the Department of Health. It didn’t have a website and that made it difficult for people to find details of their HIV prevention campaigns and other information.

Who are CHAPS?

Most people haven’t a clue what CHAPS is, so the website explains this and tells you a bit about each CHAPS member, like the LGF. Each has their own page featuring an overview of their services, a guide to their resources and any upcoming events they are hosting.

Work and campaigns

This section introduces CHAPS campaigns past and present and how individuals and organisations can benefit from these. Details of how you can order campaign materials are provided.

What have we learnt?

This part of the new CHAPS website provides easy access to CHAPS reports – like the sector summary reports, Making it Count briefing sheets and Sigma Research reports.

Making it Count, the strategic planning framework for reducing HIV transmission during sex between men, features in a special section with an overview of the key points.

Communicating together

The third section of the CHAPS website, Our Community, opens communications between individuals as well as organisations. This community platform gives you the opportunity to create a profile for both yourself and your project, you can create events such as training and conferences and invite people who are also registered on the site.

Our Community also provides an excellent opportunity to feedback about the development of CHAPS campaigns, conferences and training.

CHAPS website
 

Positively Together HIV Conference

posted: 07/12/2010

A conference in late February will promote the health and well-being of people living with HIV. The ‘Positively Together’ conference aims to bring together people living with or affected by HIV, as well as services responsible for planning and delivering HIV treatment, care and support, in order to raise awareness of how to promote the health and wellbeing of people living with HIV.

Chaired by Baroness Joyce Gould of the Sexual Health Independent Advisory
Group, confirmed speakers include:

• Sir Nick Partridge, Chief Executive, Terrence Higgins Trust
• Dame Denise Platt, Chair of the Commission for Social Inspection
• Silvia Petretti, Positively UK

There will be a range of workshops to choose from including:

• HIV stigma and discrimination
• The role of the voluntary sector
• Clinical care pathways
• Service user involvement

The conference is for people interested in this including:

• People living with or affected by HIV
• GPs and primary care staff
• GP Consortia
• HIV support organisations
• Sexual health services and Commissioners of sexual health services
• GUM staff
• Health promotion teams
• Social services
• Drug agencies

Positively Together is organised by the Centre for HIV and Sexual Health and The Forge Centre, Sheffield City Council’s HIV and Hepatitis social work support service.

Wednesday 23rd February 2011, Sheffield
Cost: £190
Limited bursaries available for people affected by HIV (please contact them for details)

For further information, please contact them on
Tel: 0114 226 1900 Fax: 0114 226 1901 e-mail

Book before 28 January, the closing date.

To register please complete the application form 

Better Benefit ‘Work’ Tests

posted: 24/11/2010

The government has said it will overhaul its controversial medical tests to decide whether the seriously ill and disabled can claim long-term sickness benefits. An independent review found they were "impersonal, mechanistic and lacked empathy", leaving many claimants feeling unjustly treated and distressed.
 

The review, conducted by the academic Malcolm Harrington, an occupational health specialist, looked at whether the 'working capability assessment' was a fair system. There is mounting evidence that people with serious illnesses, like HIV, are being judged fit for work, when they are not. 40% of people who appeal, win their appeals.
 

Testing 94,000 people a month
The tests, first introduced in October 2008, mean 53,000 people are assessed a month for 'employment and support allowance'. The numbers being tested will balloon from next April as another 41,000 incapacity benefit recipients are re-assessed under the ‘work capability assessment’ every month.
 

Long-term ill and disabled somehow pass ‘work’ tests
Harrington found that the assessments, run by a French multinational, Atos Origin, which received £54m from the coalition government for the contract, failed people with mental illnesses and long-term disabilities.
 

‘Impossible’ 28 page form
One form which claimants needed to complete is 28 pages long and almost half the people "found the questionnaire difficult or impossible to complete".
 

Another problem is that people’s ability to work is measured by a computer questionnaire that uses "descriptors" - questions that are apparently unrelated to work. One example is that people are asked whether they had "loaded a dishwasher or washing machine" that day. "It does not bother to ask whether the claimant has a dishwasher or washing machine. That is the danger with computer systems and drop-down menus," said Harrington.
 

Another question asks if you sit and watch TV. Say yes and they assume you can sit for long periods in a chair.
 

"We want to rely much more on healthcare professionals and assessments., said Harrison..

He pointed out that 40% of those found fit for work by the system appealed and won – and added that most people who appealed provided "additional medical information".
 

Radical change needed
Harrington called for a radical overhaul, with jobcentre staff having to take into account health records, the Atos assessments and an individual's own testimony before making a decision about whether someone on sickness benefits should be forced back into work.
 

At present benefits staff rarely dissented from Atos's verdict, he said, and "a lack of procedural justice can lead people to feel embittered and for some this can lead to psychological distress with affects on physical and mental health".
 

Champions to help
The report also recommends the appointment of lay "champions" to guide claimants through the process, and detailed explanations of why a benefit has been refused.
 

Welcome for review
Many working with the poor and vulnerable welcomed the report, saying it was a long overdue recognition of the system's problems. Citizens Advice said its surveys showed a 41% increase in complaints from claimants in the past year alone.

NAT, National AIDS Trust welcomed the findings and recommendations. They say ‘we fully support the call for change to ‘improve the fairness and effectiveness of the WCA’ by improving transparency, empathy and communication within the assessment process for Employment Support Allowance (ESA)’. NAT were among the 400 organisations and individuals to contribute to the independent review, based on their research report Unseen disability, Unmet needs – A review of the impact of Work Capability Assessment on people living with HIV. Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of NAT (National AIDS Trust), said: ‘NAT supports the recommendations of the independent review and we were extremely pleased to see some of our concerns included in the final report.

Government to make all the changes

The government said it accepted Harrington's conclusions and would implement them in full. The work and pensions minister Chris Grayling said: "There were no targets or goals to get people off benefits. This is meant to be a fair process … we are dealing with claimants who we have had very little contact with."
 

Reform delay criticised

However, Harrington did criticise the government for failing to implement a key recommendation quickly enough: that of a "personalised summary of assessments in plain English" to be produced by Atos. The government could only promise that ministers "explored the feasibility of providing a summary" by the end of 2011. Given the planned expansion in the scheme next year, Harrington said, this "was just not good enough".
 

Charities said the "review pinpoints what is wrong with the system". Matthew Lester of the Papworth Trust, a disability charity, said the main concern now was how quickly the government would implement the report's main findings. "Even if they get the main points implemented by April that will mean another 250,000 people being assessed by a system that we already know is unfair."

NAT report

Source (adapted)

Volunteers - Skilled for Health

posted: 05/11/2010

Our volunteer programme is featured as a case study in the new Skills For Health Volunteering Guide. It's for people advising about volunteering in the health sector.
 

The guide includes

• Surprising facts about volunteering in the health sector
• Individual case studies showcasing personal stories of volunteering
• Organisational case studies detailing how volunteers make an impact on services
• Tips for successful volunteering
• Careers information
• Links to further information.

Apart from the two page George House Trust volunteers case study, you will find examples of volunteering in healthcare across community groups, voluntary groups, charities and the NHS and find out the difference it makes to patients, people using services, staff and volunteers.
 

There is also information about building volunteering experiences into a career.
 

These success stories inspire potential volunteers to consider the benefits of volunteering in healthcare organisations across the UK.
 

Information about volunteering with George House Trust

Careers in Healthcare: A Guide to Volunteering in Healthcare Organisations The George House Trust case study is on pages 32 & 33.
 

Skills for Health
 

Putting HIV in Public Health

posted: 02/11/2010

Public Health will soon have a major shake up in England as part of the new government’s NHS changes. What needs to be in any public health policy that is HIV and sexual health friendly? Better sexual health is one of the public's top three health priorities. This is not surprosing, England has one of the worst rates of poor sexual health in Europe.

Public Health Manifesto
Leading national sexual health and HIV organisations have drawn up a manifesto for better public HIV and STI health. The British HIV Association, National AIDS Trust and others have published an expert’s guide and better public health action list for the government.

HIV and sexual health services will soon be reorganised in England’s NHS. The new National Commissioning Board, GP commissioners and Local Authorities will need to work together in the new NHS system for HIV and STI prevention, treatment and care.

The public health manifesto for HIV sets out the good it will do, the things that need most attention, what needs doing, and the cost of NOT making HIV and sexual health a public health priority.

 

1. The benefits of improving sexual & reproductive health and HIV

• Health economic - The NHS bill for lifetime HIV treatment is rising by £1 billion each year. Preventing one new HIV infection saves over £350,000
• Health benefits – early diagnosis of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) cuts treatment costs and the number of new infections
• Reducing Health Inequality – Poor sexual health is much more common amongst people who are already vulnerable because of youth, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, or poverty. Existing inequalities are worsened by HIV stigma, poor sexual health and teenage parenthood
• Impact on societal and economic well being – The social cost of poor sexual health is high:
  - Failure to diagnose HIV infection on time leads to avoidable serious illness and early deaths
  - HIV is a long term condition, but people with HIV age sooner, and have poorer health
  - Teenage parenthood reduce the life chances of young people
  - undiagnosed STIs cause long term and life threatening problems
• Unintended pregnancy, STIs and HIV are avoidable by changing behaviour
  - Unlike many other areas of public health, STIs and HIV can be reduced through good quality prevention work, prompt treatment and partner notification, bringing rapid benefits to the NHS, the individual, and our community.

2. Improving sexual & reproductive health and HIV health outcomes

Priorities:

• reduce avoidable HIV deaths, ill health and onward HIV transmission by cutting late HIV diagnosis
• reduce the high numbers with Chlamydia by screening young people
• cut the numbers with other STIs, including gonorrhoea and genital warts
• fewer births to young women

Being able to see a clinic within 48 hours is critical. There is strong evidence that open access to sexual health services within 48 hours is crucial to controlling STIs.

3. What needs to be done

Support people to take responsibility for their sexual behaviour, through:

• local and national public health programmes that influence positive behaviour change
• improved Sex & Relationships Education in schools and in the home
• providing education and information for those attending sexual health services
• access to sexual health vaccination and screening programmes
• access to good quality, evidence based sexual health information and advice services
• encouragement to contribute actively to both the management of their own sexual health and wellbeing and to the reshaping of community and social norms.

Transform sexual & reproductive health and HIV services by:

• ensuring that effective, quality services are cost effective by better linking into community health and primary care services
• ensuring that all services are part of a local clinical network for the best care 
• joining sexual health and reproductive healthcare so that people use both at once
• encouraging self management
• offering more choice of services
• 48 hour access to treatment and care so people get the level and quality of care they need
• ensuring health staff are well skilled and trained.

Effective leadership and commissioning by ensuring:

• sufficiently skilled commissioners working within a consistent framework of service standards and outcomes
• proper coordination of commissioning for sexual & reproductive health & HIV
• services across the National Commissioning Board, GP commissioners and Local Authorities; this should ensure that services are commissioned at the most appropriate level in the new NHS system
• high calibre leadership from those individuals and organisations responsible for commissioning
• national leadership and comprehensive independent public health surveillance.

4. The cost of NOT improving sexual health & HIV

• the economic cost to the country of more STIs, HIV and unintended pregnancies
• the human cost as people suffer from avoidable infections, illness, premature mortality and from unintended pregnancies
• the social cost of poor sexual health harming communities that already have poorer health.

We want better Public Health

It is not surprising that a government survey in 2010 found that the public iin England rate sexual health as one of our three most important public health priorities.

The real challenge and opportunity is for Government, civil society and the public to work together, as part of the ‘Big Society,’ to make this a reality.

Source