many positive people face. Yet there are few places to turn to and even fewer where there's any
experience or understanding of HIV-specific issues. The UKC is hoping
to provide a possible solution.
As Robin Ramsdale explains opposite, the UKC is to remodel its current
advocacy project creating an exciting new initiative called Positive Advice.
This is a pilot project set up to run for six months. It will encompass
two separate but connected projects: the Positive Advice Legal Helpline
(PAL), and Positive Peer Advice.
The project has deliberately been kept small to ensure that any teething
problems are easily identified and sorted at the earliest opportunity.
We will welcome the input of positive people so we can best respond to
their needs. That way we can adhere to the UKC's aim of
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Malcolm Bryant
representing the genuine needs of people living with HIV and/or Aids.
The PAL helpline will operate from the UKC's premises in Vauxhall, south
London. Initially it will provide a telephone advice service on one night
a week. A team of specialist solicitors and barristers will be on hand
to listen to legal problems and provide advice and assistance. The lawyers
will advise on their own specialism, with different areas of law covered
each week. The schedule will be advertised widely in advance through the
GUM clinics and appropriate press. It is envisaged that immigration advice
will be on hand on a weekly basis with at least one other legal discipline
- for example housing, welfare, crime, wills or employment.
The lawyers who are volunteering to staff the phones are experts in their
