Australasian Society for HIV Medicine

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Background 

ASHM is a member organisation with an established and dedicated membership in Western Australia. ASHM recently held its 20^th Annual Conference in Perth in September 2008. ASHM has entered into a number of contracts in Western Australia in an attempt to provide a wider range of services in the state in a more coordinated manner. ASHM is currently working on several projects in Western Australia and this newsletter will provide an update on the work conducted to date.

Contact Tracing Project

The Contact Tracing Project aims to develop a contact tracing package focusing on the needs of health care workers servicing hard to reach populations including indigenous Australians, people in rural and remote settings, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people who are highly mobile as a function of their employment or other factors.The aim of this practical, experience-based resource will be to support current workers and to translate their leanings and experience into a resource which will assist workers new to the field. The package will be developed with the Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health. 

An information sharing workshop on 18 September 2008 brought together for the first time, a group of health care providers working in contact tracing to share ideas for the training package. The workshop was attended by 14 health care workers with diverse contact tracing experience from both metropolitan and rural settings. Practical ideas for the content and delivery of this resource were developed as a result of this workshop and will guide the development of this training package. The minutes of the meeting have been distributed with recommendations to follow.

Partner Notification Project

ASHM is working with the WA Department of Health on a project to try and reduce rates of chlamydia by increasing the likelihood that sexual partners of people who have chlamydia are also treated. In collaboration with GP, nursing and health care organisations, ASHM is developing a brief educational intervention for general practitioners and their clinic staff to equip them to engage in partner notification strategies. Informed by targeted interviews and consultation with GPs across Perth, ASHM is also creating resources for doctors to provide to their patients. This project is being run in conjunction with the Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health (CUCRH). CUCRH is currently surveying doctors who have recently notified a case of chlamydia to gauge their resource needs and their current understandings about partner notification strategies. The returns have been quite high which we think reflect a general interest in chlamydia in the community. 

In addition, a distribution strategy has been canvassed. From this the publication of an article on the project was in the September issue of the WAPNA newsletter, which is distributed to approximately 220 practice nurses in Western Australia. Discussions were also held with WAPNA regarding the possibility of other articles and advertisements to be included in further newsletters which appear both online and hard copy. A presentation was also conducted in front of the GP Medical forum organised by the WA GP Network in Perth which discussed the project, all participants also received an insert in their satchel providing further information. Discussions have also been held with the five metro GP divisions in Perth regarding potential methods of project promotion and distribution of anticipated resources and quotes have been received from the WA Medical forum for the inclusion of promotional banners, articles or inserts within their monthly editions.

ASHM is currently looking to outsource a media and/or advertising company based in Western Australia to assist in the distribution and social marketing of this project.  We would appreciate recommendations of potential companies that you may have had positive experiences with. Please email any suggestions to cherie.bennett@ashm.org.au   

HIV Training

ASHM has conducted 14 introductory training sessions in HIV medicine across Western Australia in partnership with the WA GP Network. There were 143 attendees at these meetings including GPs, nurses and allied health workers, 108 of whom are practising in non-urban locations. The remaining two meetings will be held in the Perth primary Care Network and Wheatbelt Divisions of GP. The first of these, a meeting in Northam, is scheduled for Wednesday 29 October 2008. 

Models of Access and Clinical Service Delivery

WA Health, along with all other state and territory Health Departments and the Commonwealth are collaborating with ASHM and NAPWA in a two part National project looking at:

• mechanisms necessary to support people living with HIV in Australia today, and
• the workforce development needs that will need to be met to achieve this.

The project has been running for a few months and held a meeting in Perth in September. ASHM will be working with WA health to get a better understanding into where people with HIV are getting their HIV diagnoses and the needs of both the people doing that diagnosing and the patients themselves. 

2008 ASHM Conference in Perth

The 2008 ASHM Conference was a success with over 600 delegates attending over four days, with 71 delegates from Western Australia. To date, there are close to 70 ASHM members in Western Australia.  

For further information, please contact:

Simona Achitei PhD, Senior Project Officer: simona.achitei@ashm.org.au   

Cherie Bennett, Project Officer: cherie.bennett@ashm.org.au