THE CHARITY NEWSLETTER OF WAVERLEY CARE Supporting people living with HIV or Hepatitis C in Scotland Summer 2018 Brushing up! Supporting positive health through art Waverley Care is Scotland’s HIV and Hepatitis C Charity From our five bases across Scotland, our work is making a positive difference to the lives of people affected by HIV or hepatitis C. Across Scotland we’re: • reducing new infections INVERNESS • challenging stigma • getting people diagnosed • providing support Our services Advice & Information MY Voice FGM Project KIRKCALDY African Health Project One-to-One Support STIRLING Befriending Peer Support Children & Families People Affected by Drug Misuse GLASGOW Community Outreach Poz Youth EDINBURGH & Support Prevention, Education Condoms by Post & Awareness Gay & Bisexual Men Residential Group Support Self Management HIV & Hepatitis Testing SX (Gay & Bisexual Men’s Project) HIV & Hepatitis Training Wave (Sexual Health Education) LGBT Support Women To find out more about our work, our services and to get involved, contact us at [email protected], or visit www.waverleycare.org. Front cover image: Artist, John Martin Fulton, and Art in Healthcare Chief Executive, Margaret O’Connor, join Nathan from Waverley Care for a series of art workshops in Motherwell. News African Voice of Hope initiative Over the last few months, our Voice of Hope Choir has been working on a new project with African churches in Scotland. Over the course of 2018, the choir will work with eight churches, combining weekly singing sessions with HIV awareness workshops covering the basics of HIV testing, treatment and prevention. This culminates with a workshop for the whole congregation, with opportunities for people to access testing. The Voice of Hope Choir is an important part of our outreach work in African communities, singing at community events, and helping us deliver positive messages about HIV in a way that people feel comfortable engaging with. The new initiative builds on our Health in Faith Agenda, which works with African faith leaders to take conversations about HIV and sexual KIRKCALDY health to the heart of communities. This work contributes to challenging HIV stigma, encouraging people to know their HIV status, and ensuring that people living with the condition can access the support they need to live well. EDINBURGH Snapshot… A quick round-up of the latest news from across Waverley Care… Volunteers from across Scotland took part in our recent peer mentor training learning the skills to use their experience of living with HIV to support others. We recently delivered HIV and hepatitis training to immigration staff at the Home Office in Glasgow. We work with a number of asylum seekers who are living with HIV and the training helped to highlight some of the challenges they face. Youth Development Officers joined our Wave team in Inverness to take part in sexual health Our partnership with FareShare has prevented 2.7 tonnes of food from being sent to landfill. training – focusing on how to talk to young people about sexual health issues. Thanks to new funding from the Scottish In the first six months of our partnership with Government, we are taking forward plans to FareShare, we have been able to redistribute expand the work of our SX and African Health enough food to service users to make 6,500 projects, along with increased work to engage with meals! (pictured opposite) people living with, or at risk of HIV or hepatitis C. Summer 2018 Positive Interest 3 Making Room for Art We recently teamed up with a number of organisations to arrange a series of art workshops for people living with HIV in Lanarkshire. The Make Room for Art project, which was led by an experienced artist, ran for eight weeks between April and June, offering the chance to try a range of techniques from painting to printmaking. The workshops were open to anyone living with People taking part in the workshops were able to try a range of techniques including chalk, paint and printing. HIV and absolutely no experience was required, just enthusiasm! “ Each workshop looks at something different – it’s The project was a collaborative effort, involving been exciting and I’m learning as I go. We have a lot of Art in Healthcare, the Terrence Higgins Trust, NHS fun, talking and laughing, and I’ve been able to bring Lanarkshire and the Lanarkshire Blood Borne Virus my children along. You can just do it and not worry Network, alongside Waverley Care. about the stress” Sarah Encouraging figures on PrEP The first figures on PrEP in Scotland were published recently, following last year’s decision to make the HIV prevention drug available on the NHS. In the first eight months that PrEP was available, almost 1,300 people were able to access it, higher than had initially been anticipated. In another welcome aspect of the findings, it looks as HIV conference though engagement around PrEP is encouraging more and more people through the doors of clinics to access testing comes to Scotland and other support services. The great and the good of the HIV and sexual health PrEP is a pill that can stop a person taking it from getting worlds descended on Edinburgh in April for an HIV. Last year, the decision was taken to make the drug international conference. available to people considered at the greatest risk of HIV, The BHIVA BASHH conference was a chance to learn putting them in greater control of their status. about the latest research in these fields, and to share best practice with colleagues from around the world. of people who accessed PrEP did so on With the conference coming to Edinburgh, it was a their first visit to a sexual health clinic in fantastic opportunity for Waverley Care to highlight 41% at least 2 years. the work we are doing across Scotland. We were proud to present three of our projects – people cited PrEP as one of the main Caring Conversations, Wave and the Health in Faith reasons they decided to visit their local Agenda – to delegates. 1,780 sexual health clinic. (above) Staff from across Waverley Care attended the conference to talk about our work. 4 Positive Interest Summer 2018 Staff Profile Introducing… Tam Armstrong Tam has been working with Waverley Care for the past decade, starting out in Milestone before joining our Fife project in 2016. We caught up with him to hear about his role, about his favourite fundraising memories and about his love of Donegal. How long have you been with them to engage with the service to Where is your favourite holiday Waverley Care? improve their physical and mental destination? I first joined the team back in 2008. health. Donegal, Ireland. It has some of the most amazing hills and I can’t quite believe it’s been that What are the main challenges of white sandy beaches you’ll see long! Before that, I was an engineer providing support in Fife? working on photocopiers. anywhere in the world. Fife covers a vast area and there are That’s quite a change. What inspired lots of small communities spread What is your favourite TV show? you to come to Waverley Care? across it so travel is a large part of 24 Hours in Police Custody. It was through my wife – she was the job. The people we work with Who would play you in the movie working at Milestone. Anytime I often struggle with issues like drug of your life? came to her work, I enjoyed the and alcohol dependency so getting James Corden. atmosphere and the positivity them to engage can be difficult. around the building. It made me What’s your favourite meal? realise that I wanted to work in the You’ve done a lot of fundraising for Any kind of seafood. same field. Waverley Care – what’s the most What’s your favourite joke? memorable thing you’ve done? Can you tell us about your role? Too rude to mention! I’d have to say walking the West I’m community-based and travel Who inspires you? Highland Way twice, along with my all over Fife. I’m there to provide My mother-in-law, for her best friend Ollie the collie! I’ve also practical support to service users, kindness, caring and compassion been involved in lots of discos and whether it’s attending appointments to all around her. She always and assessments or helping them raffles! makes time for people, especially with benefit applications. Away from work, what do you like to when they are having issues or The people we’re working with can do in your spare time? troubles in their lives. have quite chaotic lives so I try to Golf, walking and quality family time build relationships and encourage with my wife and two daughters. Summer 2018 Positive Interest 5 News Self-test kits funded Our African Health Project will be able to help an additional 500 people to know their HIV status this year, after NHS funding was agreed to provide self-testing kits. The kits, which can give results in 15 minutes, will be made available in Greater Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Forth Valley. The funding follows a successful pilot which found that the kits helped break down barriers that prevent more Africans from accessing testing. Self-testing kits are usually ordered online for home use. However, our project will make them available for use through our existing outreach work with African communities, including at local events. The project offers individuals a quick, easy testing option alongside accurate information about living with HIV. It also offers a community- based option that can be taken at a time and place to suit the individual.