The role of community-based services within the continuum of HIV and mental health care
EATG is happy to publish the Discussion Paper Community-based HIV & Mental Health care: The role of community-based services within the continuum of HIV and mental health care. We invite you to read this paper and join the discussion taking place in the Forum of EATG-curated HIV and Mental Health online platform.
Haven’t you registered yet? Launched earlier this year, the first European and Central Asian Platform on HIV and Mental Health is a place to engage in discussions with the community and professionals from across the region. Your input on these discussions will help us shape an upcoming webinar and a multistakeholders’ meeting planned for later this year and next year.
From 2020 to 2021, EATG’s delivered its first HIV & Mental Health Project. This Project included a number of initiatives, e.g. a literature review, a community survey, four stakeholder events, and publication of a Briefing Paper in October 2021 setting out an initial set of EATG recommendations to improve mental health service delivery to people living with and vulnerable to HIV.
Clear evidence-based links have been identified between HIV infection and a higher prevalence of mental health conditions compared to the general population. This discussion paper draws on existing policy, good practice as well as two stakeholders consultation events to identify key policy themes and types of interventions for improving community-based HIV and mental health care.
The paper recommends focusing ongoing discussion on three main questions:
What is community-based HIV and mental health service provision?
What services are best provided in community-based HIV and mental health care?
How important is capacity building in providing community-based services?
In addition, the paper recommends priorities for follow-up action.
We hope this publication and the discussion we aim to raise on our HIV and Mental Health online platform will help you streamline your work and advocacy.