HIV & Health promotion during a pandemic
I started my role as Prevention & Testing Team Manager at Positive East during a 2nd national lockdown. KPIs for the local authority contracts focus on testing for HIV & STIs, and increasing knowledge and confidence to reduce the likelihood of HIV & STI transmission.
*Covid bits
To reduce the likelihood of Covid transmission I developed and implemented covid-secure protocols including testing, social distancing, FFP2 masks, and sanitisation between clients. All staff and volunteers were trained on the protocols through webinars and UK Gov assets. They also received an individual covid risk assessment to assess their health, health anxiety and to understand their living arrangements. I developed venue risk assessments, service risk assessments and a pack of resources for each venue including posters and guidance for service delivery.
*Testing service - Simplybook
To manage expectations and reduce the likelihood of gatherings that weren't in line with social distancing, I implemented an appointment booking system for clients of the testing service. The system is venue-lead with details on the borough, frequency of the service and a link to map to calculate the distance of the venue. We found through surveying that there's an even split between a demand for clinics based on their location and their immediate availability. For some clients they want to access the service in anonymised spaces such as libraries and community centres, whereas others seek out opportunistic testing in cruising areas and market spaces, through the use of our mobile testing van.
*Technicolor and BeeLive
Our information and advice, and training KPIs were achieved through an online events programme aimed at communities disproportionately impacted by HIV. This included BeeLive and Technicolour, FacebookLive sexual health discussions led by my team of Prevention & Testing Coordinators and guests who work across the health and activism sectors.
*Workshop posters
We developed a series of training and workshops aimed to increase awareness of developments in HIV prevention and treatment, advertised through Eventbrite and delivered through Zoom. We ensured that the sessions were interactive through polls, breakout rooms, videos and animations, and analysing Public Health England charts. Feedback and knowledge-gained was gathered through Formstacks which was analysed through our CRM platform Salesforce, and exported easily for quarterly monitoring.