What we did next...
It feels like we've said this every year, but 2002 really
will see the biggest shake-up of HIV services ever. Make no bones about
it: the one bit about the government's Sexual Health and HIV Strategy
that is absolutely non-negotiable is that they do intend to 'normalise'
HIV. That means specialist HIV organisations, including Positive Nation
and the UK Coalition (UKC) who runs it, are going to have to be pretty
convincing about needing to continue existing as independent, specialist
entities.
With this in mind both PN and the UKC are going to broaden and deepen
our services.
The UKC will set up Positive Advice, a specialist legal advice line to
help positive people with the knottiest of 'sharp-end' problems: immigration,
housing, discrimination.
The UKC website will establish a bulletin board on HIV, and steps are
afoot to turn the UKC into a genuine membership organisation.
As for Positive Nation, we agree with the government strategy: in a world
where diseases like hep C and TB are as prejudicial to the health as HIV
itself, we are going to cover co-infection in a much more comprehensive
way. And, given that the emphasis on HIV may have inadvertently suggested
to positive people that they run no further health risks when they have
unprotected sex, we plan much more coverage
page 3 of 3
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