MindOut the Mental Health Service run by LGBT people for LGBT people gave special awards to entertainer Spice and the Bedford Tavern at their AGM last week.
From left to right: Aaron Lawrence, Helen Jones, Director of MindOut and Mayor of Brighton & Hove, Cllr Pete West
Aaron Lawrence aka entertainer Spice received a special award for his fundraising project My Costume Drama which raised a magnificent £15.400 for MindOut during the last 12 months. Everyday for much of the last year Aaron dressed in different fancy dress costumer to raise the money for the charity.
From left to right: Mayor of Brighton & Hove, Helen Jones, Matt Richards and Adam Brooks
The Bedford Tavern in Hove where Aaron cooks lunches every Sunday also received an award for their fundraising support of MindOut.
Transport for London (TfL) and Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) mark National HIV Testing Week by hosting the UK’s biggest workplace testing event for the second year running.
Following last year’s success, which saw 90 TfL employees requesting the test, this year’s event has expanded to encourage more staff to get involved.
For the first time, it is possible for staff to receive the test outside of the office, which will make it easier for operational staff to take part. HIV tests will be offered to staff at King’s Cross St. Pancras station and three of TfL’s Head Offices.
National HIV Testing Week aims to increase the awareness and accessibility of HIV testing across the UK, particularly to the key groups affected by HIV – gay and bisexual men and black African men and women. It also hopes to tackle the stigma around getting tested to normalise the process and lead to earlier diagnosis.
Dr Olivia Carlton OBE
Dr Olivia Carlton OBE, TfL’s Head of Occupational Health, said:“We are proud to be supporting National HIV Testing Week. We believe it’s hugely important for our staff to have access to HIV testing and are aware of the benefits of getting an early diagnosis. We hope that lots of our employees take this opportunity, especially those that have not considered being tested before.”
Ian Green
Ian Green, Chief Executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, added:“Last year, TfL broke the record for the biggest workplace HIV testing event and we’re really excited that our ground-breaking partnership will return for this year’s National HIV Testing Week.
“Almost half of all new HIV diagnoses are made in London. As one of London’s biggest and most diverse employers, TfL can make a huge difference in helping to normalise HIV testing and busting stigma across the city.
“Today, if you test positive, effective treatment means you can live as long as anyone else, and when the amount of the virus in your blood is reduced to undetectable levels, this means you cannot pass on HIV. Testing puts you in control and is nothing to be feared.”
Tim Martineau, Chief of Staff, UNAIDS, said: “Globally around 43 per cent of the 37 million people living with HIV don’t know they have the virus. Initiatives like Transport for London’s workplace testing event are critically important to get people talking about HIV, to break down the barriers of stigma and to allow people to make informed decisions about their own health.”
TfL’s LGBT+ staff network group, OUTbound, alongside TfL’s Occupational Health team have been promoting the initiative to staff internally to raise awareness and encourage participation. Employees have the opportunity to book appointments beforehand or attend a walk-in session. Within 24 hours of appointments becoming available, the testing slots on offer at one of the locations had already been fully booked.
On World AIDS Day on December 1, the London Gay Men’s Chorus will be performing for customers at Angel Underground station. The event is being held to mark the 25 year anniversary of their first ever performance taking place at the same station. There will also be the chance to hear them sing at Tottenham Court Road Underground station that evening.
For more information on how and where you can get tested during National HIV Testing Week (November 19-25), click here:
Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) Brighton attend Celebrating Faith Event on November 15, organised by Brighton and Hove Faith in Action, bringing together faith groups that offer services and support throughout the city.
Left: Andrew Ramage (Church Leader), Right: Kim Pawley (Board Member)
MCC Brighton was the only openly LGBT supporting organisation present at the event.
Church leader, Andrew Ramage said: “It was a great opportunity to talk about Spirituality and Sexuality and what we offer the Brighton and Hove LGBT community. The information was well-received and a number of people were glad to see an organisation that openly supports the LGBT community getting out there and talking about it.”
“Look out for our ‘God thinks you’re fabulous’ flags at future events.”
MCC Brighton is a fully inclusive church that has served the LGBT community in Brighton and Hove since 2002.
University of Brighton shares a €2million grant to research ways of improving access to and the quality of prevention and diagnosis of HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, and viral hepatitis.
The ESTICOM project, with funding from the European Commission’s Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency, will support the creation of two European-wide behavioural surveys along with tailored training for community-based health workers.
In this new European project, the University of Brighton will develop the first-ever European online survey of community health workers who provide counselling, testing, and psychosocial care and support for gay, bi-sexual, and other Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) across all 28 member states of the European Union.
The research will be led by Dr Nigel Sherriff, Principal Research Fellow, with Professor Jorg Huber, Professor of Health Sciences, both from the Centre for Health Research in the School of Health Sciences, along with Alex Pollard, Research Fellow, and Dr Carrie Llewellyn, Reader, both from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
Dr Sherriff said:“This is an exciting opportunity to generate, for the first time, European-wide data on the current state of Community Health Work with gay, bi-sexual, and other MSM.
“The European Community Health Worker Online Survey or ECHOES will be live towards the end of 2017 when we hope as many workers as possible throughout Europe who provide sexual health services for MSM in the community will take part. This will be crucial to help ensure the findings are able to inform future policy priorities for the European Commission and its member states.”
News of the project coincides with National HIV Testing Week which runs from November 19 – 25 to promote HIV testing to gay and bisexual men and black African men and women.
You must be logged in to post a comment.