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Netreach

It can be difficult to imagine life before the internet was invented. It’s now used for finding a partner, making friends and gathering information on anything from history to health.

For the last couple of years Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) has been combining some of these aspects by providing health information to chat room users on Gaydar (www.gaydar.co.uk). The service, called ‘Netreach’, means THT’s trained outreach workers, who normally work in bars, clubs or cruising grounds, offer information and support on HIV and sexual health online. The initiative, funded by the Department of Health, is completely confidential.

Outreach workers are found in various chatrooms or can also be found by typing in ‘tht.’ which is at the beginning of all the user names. All users have to do is double click on the THT user name and they can privately chat to one of the THT team while online.

Gaydar users can ask any questions they have about HIV or sexual health in confidence. Chatrooms are totally informal and people often feel more comfortable talking about these issues online rather than face to face or over the phone.

So far THT has had over 5,000 messages from men covering a broad range of subjects from finding a local GUM clinic and facts on HIV transmission to requests for support around a new diagnosis or disclosure. The outreach workers on Netreach are gay men and many of them are living with HIV, so they understand many of the issues from a personal perspective as well as a professional one.

Workers are on Gaydar at various times throughout the week, but can definitely be found online on Monday and Sunday evenings as well as Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.

For further information on Netreach, or to speak to someone when the team are not online please call THT Direct on 0845 12 21 200.