Hey Peter, Is it true Howard Brown let's you get HIV tested with your Boo?

Peter Pointers is Chicago's most trusted source for gay, sexy, healthy info with an all-access pass to nationally known health and wellness experts. Go ahead, ask Peter for Pointers. Visit his page on the LifeLube site and read answers to commonly asked questions too.



Q: I heard that Howard Brown Health Center has a program that encourages male couples and sexual partners to get tested together for HIV.  Is that true?
 
A: Yes, you are correct! Getting an HIV test can be difficult, if not downright scary—and having a conversation with your partner(s) about HIV results can bring up a lot of other issues. Thanks to a new service developed by researchers from Emory University and funded by the MAC AIDS Fund, Howard Brown Health Center, and two clinics in Atlanta, can provide an opportunity to lessen those challenges among sexual partners.

I spoke with Sam Hoehnle, Project Coordinator of “Testing Together” at Howard Brown Health Center in Chicago.  Mr. Hoehnle said that “Testing Together” provides an opportunity for gay and bisexual men in relationships to get tested and receive their results together (at the same time, in the same room), with a trained counselor present to discuss the results. Testing with your partner and receiving your results together is a great opportunity to start (or continue) a healthy conversation about HIV in your relationship, and allows you to talk openly about building a plan to address HIV (and other STI) risks. The service is designed to focus on the future, not on what each person has done in the past.

Different types of couples can also benefit from this intervention. In the United States most infections occur between men and their primary sex partner. You or your partner may be infected with HIV and not even know it. Testing Together gives an opportunity for you and your partner to discuss how HIV may impact your relationship.

If you are positive you can still use the service. If you meet the screening criteria, Testing Together can provide an opportunity for you to share your status with your partner, in a controlled setting, with a trained counselor who will help start a discussion with you and your partner to discuss the realities of HIV in your relationship.

Some people may be concerned about how this service will affect their relationship, especially if they have different results.  While, there is no way to know what direction your relationship will take after finding out each other’s HIV test results, in Africa, where the service was started, most couples with different results stayed together. Every relationship is different. Knowing your partner’s status will start a conversation with honesty and trust.

The process of testing is relatively easy. You and your partner will be screened separately to see if you are eligible for testing. If you are eligible and agree to be tested together, then you will meet with a counselor to start a discussion about the testing process and how HIV impacts you in your specific relationship. The counselor will then provide the results for the test with you and your partner, at the same time and in the same room. Once you both know your status, the counselor will work with you both to determine the best way to minimize the risk of HIV in your relationship.

Only four clinics in the U.S. are offering this service for male couples. The two locations in Chicago are Howard Brown Health Center and the Broadway Youth Center (for people under 25 years of age).

Howard Brown offers the service during regular Walk-in Clinic hours and the Broadway Youth Center on Tuesday and Thursday from 5pm-8pm.

In Atlanta, services are offered at our partner sites AID Atlanta and Ric Crawford Clinic (formerly AID Gwinnett).

For more information about Testing Together you can go to www.testingtogether.org or check the program out on Facebook. You can also follow us on Twitter @TestingTogether.

TOMORROW - Howard Brown is hosting a community forum at their Sheridan location (4025 North Sheridan Road, Chicago) on Thursday, November 3rd - TOMORROW - from 6:30p - 8:00p. 

 

This forum is an opportunity for the community to learn more about the service. A representative from Emory University and Howard Brown Health Center will be there to present on couples HIV counseling and testing. The forum will also feature a question and answer portion. And light refreshments!

 

Hope to see you there!

 

Be well,
Peter Pointers
peterpointers@lifelube.org
www.lifelube.org/experts.php

Gay and AIDS community condemn Frieden CDC appointment

“The bad news is that [Frieden’s] propensity to ignore the concerns of affected communities may hinder his ultimate success in achieving the goals of aligning public health with the best that science has to offer.”

via Housing Works, by David Thorpe

This week’s appointment of New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provoked dismay among AIDS advocates and the gay press in New York City and beyond (with some exceptions).

As Health Commissioner, Frieden tried to do away with informed consent for HIV tests, made an Orwellian power grab for the medical information of people living with HIV, and infamously mishandled the so-called AIDS “superbug” case in 2005. As head of the CDC, Frieden may try to bully states into adopting routine testing without informed consent and will almost certainly take a step away from the real concerns of real people living with HIV/AIDS.

Read the rest.

Of interest in Gay City News:
Policy Regarding Bathhouses and Other Commercial Sex Venues in New York City

Critics slam CDC’s push for HIV testing without written consent

When it comes to HIV testing, Doug Swaffer believes it’s better to be safe than sorry.

"I’m tested on a regular basis so that I can be responsible for my own health," he comments, adding that he has no problems signing a form that allows his healthcare provider to notify his insurance company if the test ever comes up positive.

The openly gay Somerville, Mass. resident says it’s a moral obligation of every sexually-active adult--whether they’re gay, bi or straight--to go under the needle at least once a year to make sure they’re not putting a potential sex partner at risk.

However, privacy is a huge issue for the 40-year-old network administrator.

"It’s my choice to sign the consent form or be tested elsewhere under more anonymity," he remarks. "I’m scared if they take away that right that some people would be afraid to get tested."

Swaffer isn’t alone with his concerns.

Read the rest.

Does Counseling Matter in the Context of HIV Testing?

Testing, testing, testing - MUCHO emphasis on HIV testing these days. There has been MUCHO debate around the role of counseling in the HIV testing context - is it a barrier to care, does it have any value to any of the participants (like the person getting tested), and what would happen if it disappeared? One of the LGBTI Health Movement's most wonderful, steady leaders, Stewart Landers, mused over the issues and shares some of his thoughts here for LifeLube.

Please leave a comment if so inclined.

Jim

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I think it's not a coincidence that the move to reduce or eliminate counseling as part of HIV testing comes at the same time many are pushing for "routine" or other forms of expanded HIV testing.

The main barrier to widespread HIV testing has been providers' discomfort or lack of willingness to "go there." That is many do not want to talk to their patients about a stigmatized disease that may suggest behaviors they (the provider) are uncomfortable discussing or providing counseling or other information about.

Removing counseling requirements and requiring only opt-out consent procedures potentially allows many providers to check off the HIV test box when they draw blood and never mention it to the patient. Docs who would do this (and I really do love most docs I've known in my life) are also the ones who are least likely to want to deliver a positive test result in person to a client but leave it to their staff, phone or even, heaven help the newly infected person, mail.

While there may be anecdotal information and some pretty good research that most negative people don't change behavior based on negative results, there is pretty good research that positive people do change behavior after receiving positive test results and those changes are in the direction of risk reduction. Whether those changes are the results of counseling or the well taught human trait to avoid harming others is hard to separate, because up until recent times, almost all people received counseling with their HIV test results.

I had to give out 2 or 3 positive test results in my time as an HIV counselor (in the late 80s with virtually no treatment and much more stigma), and I agree people don't hear or absorb much information at the time of a test result. However, a good HIV counselor knows that it is also the affective behavior of a counselor that is important - empathy, patience, a willingness to listen (though many clients seek to "disappear" as quickly as possible after getting a positive test result.) There are also techniques that are used such as making plans with a client about who they were going to talk to next, what they were going to do over the next 4-24 hours, the next week and even month, just so they understood that their life would go on.

Each positive test result is somewhat unique, so it's hard to describe exactly the strategy counselors employ. With the current emphasis on moving people directly from a positive test result into care, people who give test results are often situated at the same location where people receive medical or case management services. In those cases, when the client is not anonymous, a counselor can make appointments for medical or case management services and someone (usually not the counselor, but in some cases it is the counselor) will follow-up with the client to make sure they show up to get those services.

Getting a positive test result for HIV is still a shocking piece of news for most people. It changes the course of their lives - how they think about partnering, parenting, sexuality, survival, work and much more. While I'm all for the mainstreaming of AIDS care and the de-stigmatization of the illness, I often find myself in a quandary about how we do that and still acknowledge all the life changing aspects of the illness.

---Stewart

BIO - Stewart Landers, JD, MCP, has been a senior consultant at John Snow, Inc. (JSI) since 1994. He consults on issues related to HIV/AIDS, substance abuse treatment and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) health. Mr. Landers has also been an activist for LGBTI rights and health, and was co-convener of the 2004 National LGBTI Health Summit. In addition to his consulting duties, Mr. Landers serves as an associate editor of the American Journal of Public Health for LGBT Health, HIV/AIDS, community planning and evaluation studies. He has recently launched his own blog: Landers Health Report.