Complaints bureau coming for people with AIDS

Health Minister John Rahael yesterday said a complaints bureau and hotline will be established in which persons living with HIV/AIDS can report stigma and discrimination and seek help.

He made this announcement while discussing the Government’s plans to develop a framework for the protection of People Living With AIDS (PLWHAs), their families and vulnerable groups. In his address at the TT Postal Corporation (TTPost)/Caribbean Epidemiology Centre launch of postage stamps to mark World AIDS Day at the Trinidad Hilton, Rahael said the Government will receive assistance from the World Bank in its policy framework. The bank identified stigma and discrimination as the glaring issue among social factors in its HIV/AIDS prevention and control project for the Caribbean. Concerns for PLWHAs are confidentiality, employment, housing, mandatory testing for the purposes of obtaining insurance, immigration and access to health care.

Rahael said legislation will address these issues and workshops for lawyers and legal aide counsellors will be organised. He called for an end to stigma and discrimination by health care professionals at hospitals and other health facilities. “These are institutions where people expect to obtain care and support and sometimes it is the first place where people experience HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination.” He said there should be no lesser standard of medical care, isolation, name tagging or other methods of identifying someone as HIV positive. “There should be no breaches of confidentiality, negative attitudes of staff, use of negative verbal and body language by our health care workers. There should be no shunting of patients between wards, doctors or hospitals.”

Dr James Hospedales Director of the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre, said decreasing stigma and discrimination is an important strategy in promoting two of the centre’s major goals in its response plan — decreasing the spread of HIV/AIDS and reducing the impact. “If we decrease stigma and discrimination, people will be more willing to come forward for counselling and testing and find more ways to tell their partners and reduce the spread of the disease.” He said fear and prejudice “hang-ups” cause stigma and discrimination. Hospedales said fear is reasonable and can be addressed by understanding how the disease is and is not spread. However, he said an even bigger problem is the prejudice due to socialisation and the range of religious/moral perspectives and criminality of certain behaviours (men having sex with men, prostitution and drug use). In those territories where prostitution is regulated and homosexuality is not a crime, Hospedales said it created an atmosphere for public health for disease prevention and control. From a “moral perspective,” Hospedales said there are many examples in religious teachings not to practise stigma and discrimination but to be understanding.