Breach of confidentiality can kill
Somehow, a very aggressive alcoholic in my neighbourhood near Euston has found
out one of my neighbours is HIV positive. As I write this letter, she’s
screaming at the top of her voice that he has ‘full-blown Aids’,
with a can of high-strength lager in one hand and a crack spliff in the
other. She’s bashing on his door, threatening to smash the guy’s
windows, inviting local youths to firebomb his flat and warning anyone who’s
walking past her to keep their kids away from his flat.
Luckily the cops have arrived and she seems to have calmed down now. But if
she could’ve put together a Molotov cocktail, I can’t be certain
she wouldn’t have used it. Breaching someone’s
confidentiality to the wrong person really can kill.
Marcel Wiel, London
Your listening CPS
For the benefit of your readers the CPS would like to comment on the very
valid debate on HIV-related prosecutions held in the May issue.
The CPS is sensitive to the concerns that prosecutions of cases involving
defendants living with HIV have raised among people living with HIV and HIV
organisations. We do not take delight from these prosecutions or use HIV to
raise our “profile with an ignorant public”. We have a serious
responsibility in establishing the law in relation to new offences. Our community
engagement is wide-ranging and we seek the views of many different groups,
especially where there is little precedent, for example in dealing with
‘honour crimes’. We are always working on legal guidance for our
lawyers and this has to adapt and change. Cases involving defendants with
HIV are no exception to this and a dedicated team is being set up to look
at this specific area. In developing our policy we will be seeking as wide
a range of views as possible, including those of HIV organisations and of
people living with HIV.
We are committed to putting in place community informed policy consistent
with the law.
Over the coming months, we are aiming to do just that - frame appropriate
prosecution policy and guidance helped by community views and those of other
key stakeholders. We will aim to do this in an inclusive, open and transparent
way, building on the work we have previously done on racist, religious and
homophobic crime. Please be assured of our commitment to listening and taking
into account community views.
Philip Geering, Director of Policy
Crown Prosecution Service
Message from Annie
I am writing to let you know I am fine and apologise for not having been in
touch for so long. I have now settled, though I still have some issues to
resolve. I would like to thank everybody who contributed towards the £50
sent to me as well as those who sent medication. I really appreciate the concern
and support shown towards my plight. The money went a long way towards meeting
some of my immediate needs.
I still have enough medication for the next two months and am trying to find
where I can access some more. At the moment I am looking for employment but
it is not easy. However, I have made some job applications. Pass my regards
to everyone - I miss you all.
Love and God’s blessings,
Annie Temba, Former UKC volunteer abruptly deported back to Zambia
in December
Millionaire’s home but no fresh veg
I wonder if many others affected with HIV consider campaigning about parity
in health and social care for all. It is an issue that affects a lot of people.
Living in Wandsworth and having been in bad health all last winter, the lack
of services has really been brought home to me. It would have been pleasant
to go to a drop-in centre, but the thought of having to travel for over an
hour on a cold winter night was unappealing. Access to once-abundant complimentary
therapies is overburdened by ridiculous amounts of red tape, making them difficult
to access. Try calling social services and you might get a reply four weeks
later.
Living as I do in area badly served by transport, where there is no bank and
few useful shops, you are more likely to be able to buy a house for a million
than find a healthy array of vegetables.
I have been seeking a transfer for over five years but my housing association,
having once lost my application do not deem my application a priority, despite
the fact I was assaulted by and continue to have trouble with a homophobic/sexually
confused neighbour with mental health problems. Trying to go through to the
local CAB proved impossible, so I resorted to writing to my MP and my case
is now under investigation. What’s unfortunate is that those affected
by HIV, unless employed or associated with HIV organisations, are marginalised
in their ability to campaign. Any spontaneity is killed by meetings upon meetings.
Where is all that grass-roots energy that produced such an excellent response
in the 80s? Where are those crusading people whose sole goal was to help others?
Have they been commandeered by the new work ethic whereby a voluntary sector
job could be seen the key to a second home in a warmer
part of Europe? Surely parity for all is an issue affecting many other people
with other health conditions who use the NHS and social services, and there
is strength in numbers and having a common goal.
name and address supplied
Psychology service saved
As you probably know, the pressure that people like yourselves, patients who
wrote to the chief executive,
letters from doctors at Chelsea and Westminster and face-to-face meetings
that we held with the PCT, had the effect of forcing them to change their
mind. I am very grateful to you for the work you did bringing it to the public
attention. It may be that you want to update people by highlighting that it
was really the joint efforts of patients and doctors that ensured a change
of tack.
Yours sincerely
Dr J Catalán, Consultant Psychiatrist,
Psychological Medicine Unit,
South Kensington & Chelsea Mental Health
Centre, LONDON
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