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In September 1997 the
Health of Londoner's Project (1)
produced some statistics about the make up of populations
in the London Boroughs. An extract that focuses on Kingston
and Richmond shows the following:
Table 2a: Estimated
health authority populations at risk, homosexual partner
in the last 5 years.
| Gender |
Homosexual Partners in
past 5 years |
| |
Lower |
Central |
Upper |
| Male |
780 |
1,850 |
2,820 |
| Female |
0 |
380 |
770 |
The figure in bold
is that suggested as preferred numbers for planning
by the Project.
The Authorities' own
Lifestyle Survey published in December 1994 (2)
shows that 5% of the approximately 300,000 population
indicated that they had sex with a same sex partner
in their life (3% of men and 2% of women). This would
suggest a population of some 15,000.
In the Authority's
1996-97 Aids Control Act report(3)
they state "HIV and AIDS show no sign of decreasing
in Kingston and Richmond Health Authority." They state
that there are:
198 known HIV positive residents
Of which 60 (72%) are gay men
115 (58)% of the total are in the age range 25-39
4 (2%) people are in age range 15-24
In the Governments
policy paper HIV/AIDS Funding 1998/99(4)
they state that the national target groups remain:
Gay men, in particular young gay men;
Bisexual men and other men who have sex with men
People diagnosed with HIV and AIDS.
They also state that "The changing
nature of treatment and the subsequent changes in the
support needs of people with HIV/AIDS have reinforced
the need for health authorities to take into account of
the valuable role played by local authorities and the
those of the voluntary sector in the overall package of
care."
The South West London
HIV/AIDS Voluntary Sector Purchasing Consortium published
its commissioning intentions in 1997(5)
. Services will be purchased on a consortium basis where
users of the service come from more than one health
authority area. The users of Positively Healthy come
from the Boroughs of Richmond and Kingston and so would
not form a part of the consortium criteria. However,
Positively Healthy was funded from the Consortium in
the past and therefore seeks to maintain its relationship
with Kingston and Richmond Health Authority in the provision
of its services.
In its own draft document
"Sexual Health Promotion - Proposals for 98/9" the Authority
lays out the following that have relevance to the services
provided by Positively Healthy:
"Strengthen outreach
work for: men who have sex with men & young people."
There is a question
here as to why gay men have been excluded from this
list contrary to the evidence provided above.
"Develop diverse but
complementary ways of promoting the health of young
gay men."
Positively Healthy
would wish to add the need to continue its support groups
and information services as a means of helping to ensure
concordance with drug treatments.
Thus it is clear that
Kingston and Richmond has a population in need of the
service provided by Positively Healthy as well as the
directive from the Government to work with agencies
such as Positively Healthy.
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