healthcare workers with HIV

http://www.aidsmap.com/UK-healthcare-workers-with-HIV-to-be-cleared-for-dental-and-surgical-work/page/2731599/

Barnsley Adults and Communities

Excellence Awards Evening 2013

On Wednesday 19^th June 2013 a very special event took place at the Bluebell Banqueting Suite, Dodworth, to celebrate outstanding achievements of people and teams across the borough who provide Adult Social Care or Community Support work. 

As with previous events put together by the council’s Adults and Communities Directorate the ceremony was divided into two parts and around 200 people were in attendance.  The event is fully supported by independent businesses and, therefore, incurs no cost to the council.

Since 2006 a large part of the evening has been dedicated to the ‘Excellence Awards’.  +me were awarded Best Voluntary Service Provision and Karl received Extra Mile Individual Award. These awards are designed to highlight the outstanding achievements of individuals and teams and those who have gone that ‘extra mile’.  Nominations are put forward by members of the public, service users, carers, family members and work colleagues with a short list and winners drawn up by a panel of judges who represent the whole of the community spectrum.  This year there were eleven (11) awards in total, including a Winner of Winners, and the evening was principally supported by BOSCH Healthcare who dedicated a special award on the night.  The guests from BOSCH also gave a short address on their groundbreaking work with the council in the field of Telehealthcare along with a display of some of their products.

The Excellence Awards were presented by Cabinet Spokesperson for Adults and Communities, Councillor Jenny Platts and the Winner of Winners were presented by Martin Farran.

For the last eighteen (18) years there has also been a celebration for those who have gained nationally recognised qualifications and this year saw a large number of workers, from both the statutory, independent and voluntary sectors, receive a certificate of recognition from the Mayor of Barnsley, Councillor Ken Richardson.  Awards at all levels were celebrated throughout the evening with rapturous applause and cheers for all those successful.

Also in attendance were the Mayor of Barnsley, Ken Richardson and senior officers of BMBC’s Adults and Communities Directorate. 

The evening was MC’d by Trevor Hewitt of the Adults and Communities Workforce Development Team, who were also responsible for organising the event and Councillor Jenny Platts closed the ceremony.

Many local organisations and individuals also donated gifts for a raffle with all the proceeds (around £400) going to Barnsley Hospice.

The evening, yet again, was a great success and a truly joyous occasion for those attending with some fantastic feedback.  It is rare that there is opportunity to celebrate positive work across the borough and it continues to play an important part in encouraging and maintaining high quality, person centered support to the people of the borough.   People are already looking forward to celebrating again in 2014.

BMBC Service Excellence Awards 2013

on the 19th June 2013 we attended the BMBC Service Excellence Awards at the Fairways Banqueting suite where we were nominated and presented with two awards by Cllr Jenny Platts.
+ME positive About Change won the best Voluntary Service Provision Award
While Karl Cooper won the Extra Mile Individual Award.

What is AIDS

http://www.aidsmap.com/Tales-of-the-late-diagnosed/page/2572026/#item2572042

A Pricey Problem

“Late diagnosis is dangerous – and expensive to manage,” says Dr Ian Cormack, HIV consultant at Croydon University Hospital in south London.

“A year on antiretroviral therapy currently costs about £6000. The care bill for a recent patient who spent six weeks in our intensive care unit was well over £200,000, which would have been avoided if they’d tested a year before.”

In his experience, for some groups, late diagnosis remains the rule rather than the exception. “I’d say at least two-thirds of my current patients here had a CD4 count below the treatment-initiation limit of 350 cells/mm³ at diagnosis.

“My patient group here is two-thirds black African and I do know people from that group who have tested late either because they think HIV is still a death sentence, or are worried about their immigration status.”

But, he says, the people who really do scrape through – and the hospital had no avoidable HIV-related deaths last year, so scrape through they do – are the people who don’t fit the typical ‘high risk’ demographic, the 13% of his patients who aren’t openly gay men or black African people.

“The white heterosexuals are the most likely to turn up actually with AIDS-related symptoms. Them, and black Caribbeans, though we see a number of Asians too. They are often very ill and often have difficulties adjusting to their diagnosis, feeling especially isolated and stigmatised.”

The Bisexual Man

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HIV TESTING

Tales of the late diagnosed

Gus Cairns

Published: 14 February 2013

The bisexual man: Brian

One such person is Brian*. The north Londoner, diagnosed at Christmas in 2007, runs his own business as a wholesaler.

He started to worry “because I was looking too healthy. I tend to lose weight in the summer and pile it on again in the autumn. That year, though, I hadn’t had to go on my usual October diet and at first was pleased.

“But something started to scratch at the back of my mind. I didn’t feel ill, exactly. It was more that I felt vulnerable – as if I needed wrapping up and looking after. I started having dark thoughts too, not specifically suicidal but morbid. ‘If I accidentally stepped in the garden pond it would be all over’ – that sort of thing.

“I went back and forth to the GP a few times and they did tests for diabetes, liver function, cancers. All came back blank. Then I started losing my appetite and my GP became concerned: he could see I had unusual weight loss. Looking back, I’m wondering why he didn’t just test for HIV too.

“Just after Christmas, I got a chest infection. The GP took one listen at my chest and said ‘Right, we have to do something’: the next thing, I was in the local A&E department.

“The moment I was there I felt better psychologically; I was being looked after, as I’d wanted. The hospital doctor said ‘We need to broach the subject of your private life’, and I said ‘Go for it’. I realised it was important not to hold back.”

And so he found himself talking for the first time about his bisexuality and his late-night cruising on London commons. He was married with two teenage children, a school governor, well known in the local community. He emphasises that he made a conscious decision not to let fear of gossip stop him telling the truth.

“The doctor was the daughter-in-law of one of my customers. I decided to trust that she’d be professional. I didn’t want a stranger telling my wife, though. So I said ‘Take the day off work’ and told her. I considered saying I’d had a drug problem but decided there was no point in lying. She was devastated, but with the help of counselling at the Terrence Higgins Trust, we pulled through.”

If there’s a message he’d like to give to others, it’s to update their knowledge about HIV. “In my line of business there are quite a lot of bi guys and they’re the ones I always hear myths from. ‘HIV is still a death sentence’, ‘it’s mutating and is resistant to all the drugs’, and so on. It’s these kinds of myths that stop people from testing.”