Programmes to find people who have dropped out of HIV care in England and to re-engage them with medical care are beginning to harness the expertise of peer support workers, the joint conference of BHIVA and BASHH heard last week in Liverpool.
Find & Treat is an NHS outreach team that works with people with experience of homelessness, substance use, the criminal justice system, sex work or migration, and has played a key part in successful programmes to re-engage people with hepatitis C who had dropped out of care in London. While the current team includes many peer workers who have lived experience of hepatitis C and homelessness, as the unit expands its work to re-engage people with HIV, it will recruit more people living with HIV who have the appropriate life experience. It’s about having “the right peer for the right person,” John Gibbons of Find & Treat told the conference.
Source : aidsmap
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