NAM has been involved, over the last two years, with two HIV prevention partnerships in England: CHAPS and NAHIP.
New Making it count website
Sigma Research (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) and the CHAPS partners recently launched an all-new website: www.makingitcount.org.uk. Building on four editions of Making it count, a strategic planning framework to prevent sexual HIV transmissions among men who have sex with men, the content has been updated and reorganised to make it easier to navigate the wide range of information covered in the framework.
It includes information on:
- HIV among gay and bisexual men in England
- The Making it Count approach
- Sexual risk and precaution
- Planning HIV prevention
The website also contains new information to help with commissioning, planning and delivering HIV prevention interventions. These sections help put the theory, goals and aims into the context of day-to-day activity, by describing the usual range of HIV prevention interventions commissioned and delivered.
These sections contain 30 case studies of successful interventions from a variety of gay men’s health agencies across England, which are also highlighted on the homepage, alongside a newsfeed from NAM and a selection of downloadable briefing sheets on specific topics of concern to HIV health promoters.
The partnerships
CHAPS is an England-wide collaborative programme of HIV health promotion for gay and bisexual men. It is funded by the Department of Health and co-ordinated by Terrence Higgins Trust (THT). The partners include: The Eddystone Trust, GMFA, Healthy Gay Life, The Lesbian & Gay Foundation, The Metro Centre, NAM, Trade Sexual Health, Sigma Research (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) and Yorkshire MESMAC.
NAHIP is the national (again, England-wide) African HIV prevention programme. Also funded by the Department of Health, all NAHIP partners are contracted by the African Health Policy Network. Partners are: Black Health Agency, The Centre for All Families Positive Health, Leicestershire AIDS Support Services, The Metro Centre, NAM, Positive East, The Rain Trust, Sigma Research, Terrence Higgins Trust and Yorkshire MESMAC.
Each partnership has its own strategic document, which provides the basis for all its activities. Both publications have been endorsed by the Department of Health.
In the CHAPS partnership, Making it count, first published in 1998 and now in its fourth edition, provides a framework for minimising HIV infection during sex between men.
In the NAHIP partnership, The knowledge, will and the power (KWP), printed in March 2008, sets out a plan to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV among African people in England.
The KWP in practice website, www.kwp.org.uk, combines updated content for The knowledge, will and the power, with NAHIP’s The Handbook, which specifies a range of activities that are used to reduce HIV prevention need among African people in England. It goes on to address key planning issues and outcomes related to each type of prevention activity. Again there are case studies of successful interventions, a newsfeed from NAM and downloadable briefing sheets.
Both are highly bookmark-able websites for anyone interested in preventing sexual HIV transmission in England.