radius. Health promotion in these cities encounters little
hostility, but elsewhere in the country it's a different story.
People in north Wales, from Wrexham across to Anglesey,
have few services but can cross the border into England.
North Wales health authorities and social services give funding to Body
Positive Cheshire and north Wales.
Home visits can be arranged and the therapist fortunately lives in north
Wales. In much of rural Wales, social diversity is far from the norm and
if you happen to be HIV positive and also gay, you're likely to feel very
isolated and stigmatised.
Tracey Ley is the outreach worker for SWISH (the South Wales Immune Deficiency
Self-Help group), which originally started out as a self-help group. While
THT Cymru works on health promotion in the area, Tracey and her fellow
workers at SWISH provide social contact and support in Swansea. As an
outreach worker, Tracey visits the most isolated individuals in the community
of west Wales.
Tracey has worked in Wales for the past 20 years and says that in the
rural areas: "It's a small-town mentality, the whole place knows
your business." In her experience, the more nationalist or Welsh-speaking
the area, the more homophobic and anti-HIV the community is liable to
be.
Sadly, SWISH is the only official HIV social support group left in the
whole of Wales, and people using it tend to come largely from the local
area.
The SWISH centre also aims to be bilingual. "Interestingly,"
comments Tracey: "Welsh speakers find it easier to talk about HIV
concerns in English!" She also notes: The majority of our members
are gay men, but over the past six months, more women and heterosexuals
have been using the centre."
In other areas, pioneering work is going on, for example Mike Yarwood
has set up Positive Tongue, an advocacy lobbying group based in Llandrindod
Wells in central Wales. "In central Wales getting drugs is OK, but
it can be difficult to get tests done for related problems such as peripheral
neuropathy. To visit GU services, you sometimes have to travel 70 miles."
page 4 of 4
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Contacts: THT Cymru:
01792 477 540, or email: thtcymru@ukf.net
Cardiff AIDS Helpline 0800 074 3445
SWISH 01792 461848 admin@theswishcentre.co.uk
Positive Tongue, PO Box 34, Llandrindod
Wells, LD1 5WG
