BRUSSELS, 25 January 2023 – Today, The European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) launches the HIV & Mental Health Platform for Europe and Central Asia. This new online space is intended to foster collaboration and experience exchange across Europe and Central Asia in addressing the mental health needs of people living with and affected by HIV.
EATG has been prioritising mental health and HIV since early 2020. Previous work shone a light on mental health within HIV prevention, support, treatment, and care across Europe and Central Asia. In doing so, it expanded EATG’s engagement in HIV and mental health to a wider range of stakeholders.
The HIV & Mental Health Platform is the next step in this process. It will have three main aims:
To foster collaboration and exchange of experiences, the sharing of good practice in providing mental health and psychosocial services to people living with and vulnerable to HIV, especially relative to community-based and lay or non-professional services.
To promote the implementation of EATG’s recommendations on HIV and mental health.
To support the development of the first European Conference on HIV and mental health -tentatively scheduled for early 2024.
The main features of this platform are the forum and resources sections. In the forum discussions will be initiated, facilitating exchange of experiences between community-led organisations representatives and professionals in the field. Resources and materials about HIV and mental health will be freely accessible through the relevant section.
The HIV & Mental Health Platform will be available in 11 languages: English, Russian, Italian, Spanish, French, Ukrainian, Croatian, Portuguese, Polish, German and Turkish.
The first main event following the launch of the HIV & Mental Health Platform will be a stakeholder webinar on 20 February 2023. This webinar will explore key ways to ensure a more effective continuum of care as people living with HIV move between community-based, primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of mental health systems. The resulting discussion is expected to further the process of clarifying a framework for mental health task sharing across the community, healthcare, and specialist levels in the HIV field, with a focus on underserved populations and Europe’s subregional differences.
How to access the platform
You will have to sign up/become a member to the platform. Registration and participation are free of charge.
For further information, please contact:
Anton Basenko anton.basenko@eatg.org
Mario Cascio