Guest post by the charity Brook
My name is Belinda, the HIV Prevention Specialist for Brook in Barnet.
This is a follow-up post about the new Adult Barnet Targeted Community HIV Prevention Service commissioned by the London Borough of Barnet that will be provided by Brook. You can read our first post from June 2021 introducing the service here.
Brook is a sexual health and well-being charity with over 55 years of experience of delivering health promotion to vulnerable groups of all ages by supporting, educating and empowering people to make informed decisions about their sexual health and well-being. Whilst our origins lie in women’s contraception and we are known for being a young person’s organisation, as with many other sexual health providers, we have, over the years, continued to grow, develop, expand and adapt our service provision. In addition to our core clinical and education offers, in 2019 we won and implemented our first Level 3 all age sexual health service in Cornwall and leading the adult BME sexual and reproductive health service delivery in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham. Both services are being delivered successfully for over a year, maintaining enhanced service provision throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The overall aim of the service is to contribute to a reduction in late diagnosis of HIV in core communities by increasing knowledge about undiagnosed HIV through, increasing knowledge of the benefits of an earlier HIV diagnosis and providing information about HIV testing services for people living in the borough through direction engagement and wider sexual health prevention channels.
The Barnet Targeted Community HIV Prevention Service will deliver a community outreach and prevention service working closely with all sexual and reproductive health services, Genito-Urinary Medicine (GUM) clinics, pharmacies, General practices (GPs) and other sexual health services in Barnet through use of digital & face-to face awareness health promotion events, face to face/virtual conversations, engaging with those at risk to understand the need to test, have healthy conversations that prevent future risk and reduce the stigma around testing, training of professionals and other key stakeholders, working with micro community influencers and working and consulting with local key stakeholders and local populations to continuously improve and develop SRH service delivery in Barnet.
The new service went live on the 1st of June 2021, and we are looking forward to commencing service provision in Barnet.
As part of the mobilisation process, we are very keen to work with and form strong partnerships with a variety of local organisations, groups, stakeholders and other health providers to ensure holistic wrap around care for our shared clients and we would very much like the opportunity to establish:
- strong bi-directional referral pathways with key stakeholders
- partnerships (both informal and formal) with key stakeholders
- trainings for professionals
- recruiting and training of volunteer community champions
- outreach locations targeted community education/awareness, advice & engagement sessions
We have a few open access trainings coming up in the few months. Our first one is taking place on the 21st October between 11AM and 1PM. In this session, we aim to provide delegates information, advice and guidance on HIV risk, assessment and prevention. Additionally, we will aim to signpost delegates to appropriate services.
You and your team can sign up through this link on Eventbrite – HIV Risk, Assessment and Prevention Tickets, Thu 21 Oct 2021 at 11:00 | Eventbrite.
Other training this year:
11/11/2021: HIV: transmission, testing and treatment
25/11/2021: Stigma & attitude: changing the landscape of HIV
07/12/2021: Working with people living with HIV
If you would like to know more or have questions or feedback on the service, email barnethps@brook.org.uk.