Review of services for people living with HIV in New Zealand

InquiryResponse7. What obstacles – if any –exist for potential serviceusers?Times, geography,culture, information,language, ideology8. How is the service workingon an administrative level?Administrative capacity(staff numbers)Administrative needsAdministrativestrengths andweaknesses – howburdens affect outputs9. How is impact,effectiveness and valueassessed, and what havethose assessmentsindicated to date? Criteria employed Frequency and modesof assessments Evidence of data forpolicy10. Are there any gaps inservice coverage that needfuture investment?Not enough staff resulting in members not always able to get hold of someone whencalling the office (currently looking to employ a member support and administrationassistant). A social worker would be ideal.Not able to offer as wide a range of services as needed and not always able to assistas don’t have the staffing or expertise but do.Don’t promote drop‐in as staff too busy.Only one office in Auckland, insufficient support for members in other regions.Voluntary membership. Often scary for women to make that initial call.Service not widely known / service not always recommended (by GP’s ID specialist).Perception [that PWI is] part of NZAF.Not having own office or at least own entrance into office. Women not alwayscomfortable having to walk through BP House ... can be a bit intimidating and not‘woman/family’ friendly.Support networks not social norm for some migrant communities. Need to increaseways of reaching these communities.Migrant communities fearful of stigma and meeting others from their communitywho may also be members. Don’t trust each other to maintain confidentiality.Migrants prefer/need practical help ... i.e., lift to hospital, food, baby milk formula,etc.Some people don’t like to be part of a peer support network as a result of their ownperceptions and fears of being associated with such an organisation (peer support isalso not for everyone).Under‐resourced both from a personnel and funding perspective.Systems and procedures derive from policies ... policy manual and proceduresmanual ...Systems/procedures/policies not up to date, i.e., accounting and memberregistration systems outdated (currently being updated) and lack regular review ofpolicies/procedures.Lack capacity to engage in monitoring and evaluation.Shortage of skills (accounts, strategy).Systems fall behind, unable to offer the variety of services members need.Need to increase networking/collaboration with other networks, unable to do asunder‐resourced.While some evaluations are undertaken, overall this is an area we need to increaseour focus.Research (Bruning 2009) identified women feel unheard, marginalised and that thereis a lack of support. However not convinced that is what they truly mean as there area number of support networks ... PW, BP, INA, APP, NZAF ... the real issue as wasidentified in research was that women feel isolated and unrecognised/unacceptedliving in an environment where the focus on HIV continues to remain on MSM, andwomen continue to feel invisible.Members would like more services, i.e. workshops for youth, networking for familieswith children living with HIV, Couples Seminar, Hetro Male Retreat/Seminar, Greateradvocacy for women (family rights).We need to look for ways to increase reach to Asian and Pacific Island women.Focused support network for Hetro men living with HIV.Sexual and reproductive health and HIV education in schools for both prevention andreduction of stigma which would assist PLHIV.REVIEW OF SERVICES FOR PLHA 75