HIV and Hepatitis Testing in Street Social Work – Special Considerations

Often, when conducting HIV or hepatitis tests, we think our main goal is to find out and communicate the result. If we reflect more deeply, we start considering how information is conveyed, the routes of HIV/hepatitis transmission, treatment, and prevention. But there are other equally important goals—empowerment, reclaiming authorship of one’s life, a sense of acceptance, finding community, and much more. Let’s talk about these goals, which are no less important than whether the test result is positive or negative. What methods can we use to achieve these goals during brief field testing?

When conducting tests for HIV and hepatitis, we often think that our main goal is to learn and communicate the result. However, upon deeper reflection, providing information about transmission routes, treatment, and prevention of HIV and hepatitis also comes into focus.
Yet there are other, equally important goals: empowering individuals, restoring their sense of self-efficacy and ownership over their own lives, fostering acceptance, enabling a sense of belonging to a community, and much more.
We discuss these equally important goals—regardless of whether the test result is positive or negative. Additionally, we explore which methods can help us achieve these goals even in brief field testing situations.
Speaker: Maksim Malyshev