Advocates are calling on the WA AIDS Council to engage in meaningful involvement of people living with HIV and recommend that the organisation needs to do more to raise widespread community awareness about the condition.
Paul Baines and Ryan Oliver, who are the WA representatives at the National Association of People Living with HIV Australia, have raised concern that a decision by the WA AIDS Council to scale back it’s handing out of red ribbons on World AIDS Day is a missed opportunity to significantly raise awareness.
The community representatives are also concerned about the organisation’s engagement with people who are living with HIV.
Tomorrow, December 1, World AIDS Day will be marked around the globe, raising community awareness of HIV and AIDS and encouraging support for people living with HIV, alongside remembering those we have lost to AIDS related conditions.
This year, the theme for World AIDS Day in Australia is ‘HIV is still here – and it’s on the move.’
In light of the number of people being newly diagnosed with HIV, the community representatives have shared their disappointment that the WA AIDS Council no longer undertake the red ribbon appeal at the same level that they did in previous years.
Back in October the issue of handing out ribbons on World AIDS Day was raised at a community meeting for people living with HIV. WA AIDS Council CEO Andrew Burry reportedly told the meeting that a large scale street appeal was beyond the organisations capacity.
Undeterred the advocates are pressing on and tomorrow morning Baines and Oliver will lead a group of people to hand out red ribbons in the city.
“The Red Ribbon appeal doesn’t just raise awareness of HIV to the wider public”, Baines said. “It also combats the internal stigma that people who are HIV positive also face.”
The advocates say that its time for the WA AIDS Council and the WA Health Department to review their operations and access how well they are involving the people most affected by HIV.
They suggest the organisation should adopt the internationally recognised standard of Meaningful Engagement with People Living With HIV (MIPA) and audit their current programs against the standard.
“This standard is internationally considered to be the Gold Standard for involvement of PLHIV at all levels of engagement.” the group said in a statement.
To draw attention to their concerns, the community members have banded together and created the a poster, which they say calls for action and the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV and AIDS.
The group said their poster campaign aims to remove stigma and start conversations about HIV. Its something that Paul Baines is concerned that the WA AIDS Council’s current promotional campaign doesn’t do effectively.
“My personal opinion is that these conversations need to involve positive people.” Baines told OUTinPerth.
Graeme Watson
Declaration: Graeme Watson is a former volunteer at the WA AIDS Council. Graeme and Paul went to primary school together, it was in the ’80s. This concludes today’s edition of It’s a small world after all. Â
The WA AIDS Council has been invited to comment on this story.
