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APAC felt the need to implement care and treatment programs,
to improve the quality of life of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA). Care and
treatment program of APAC consist of five components.
Voluntary Counseling and testing Center
(VCTC)
APAC has supported 26 NGO based VCTCs over the last two
years. The VCTC was an add-on component to the prevention and care programs
implemented by the APAC supported NGOs in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The
objective of complementing NGOs with the VCTC component was to provide a stigma
free, quality counseling and testing services for the people who are identified
with high risk behavior and to the general community, surrounding the
intervention area. Apart from these NGO based VCTCs; APAC partnered with five
private hospitals in Tamil Nadu, by supporting them with a counselor, and
motivated them to provide quality counseling and testing for patients who access
these hospitals for Ante Natal Care (ANC), TB treatment, STI treatment and for
surgeries. The VCTC team consists of two counselors, one lab technician and a
part- time doctor. All the individuals who access the VCTC are offered pre-test
counseling, HIV testing with consent of the individual, post- test counseling,
physical examination by the doctor and an authenticated HIV testing report, duly
signed by the medical officer.
APAC partnered with SIAAP, for training counselors, providing
on-site technical support and monitoring the VCTC teams on a monthly basis.
TANSACS provides the testing kits free of cost to all the VCTCs through APAC.
Over the last two years, more than 48,000 people have
accessed counseling and testing services from both NGO based and hospital based
VCTs. People who were tested positive were referred to the care and treatment
NGO or the District Level Network, operating in the respective district.
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Home Based Care
APAC initiated home based care (HBC) programs in five high
prevalent districts in Tamil Nadu in the year 2004. The program was implemented
through NGOs in two blocks in each district. The components of Home based care
program are:
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Identifying individuals who are vulnerable to HIV
infection, and referring them to VCTCs.
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Provision of Home based care through providing medical
kit box to all patients, and referring them for STI/OI/ ART treatment.
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Ensuring drug adherence for DOTS/ART.
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Counseling PLHA, spouses and family members.
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Training care givers of PLHA on home care, hygiene,
and universal precautions.
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Reducing stigma by creating an enabling environment
for the PLHA through advocacy and community mobilization.
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Mobilizing resources from the community,
philanthropists, FBOs and other agencies to meet the socio-economic needs of
the PLHA.
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Establishing meaningful networks with primary and
secondary stakeholders to sustain the continuum of care for the PLHA.
The home based care programs of APAC have reached more than
3500 PLHAs and their families. The program has restored their dignity and
reinstated their lives to live productively.
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Institutional Care
 APAC partnered with the Institute of Road Transport (IRT)
Perundurai Medical college hospital (PMCH), Erode to initiate care and treatment
program for PLHA in 2006. PMCH is governed by the transport corporation of Tamil
Nadu. It is a quasi government hospital, where more than 50% of the patients are
charged for the treatment.
The project was implemented by the STD department of PMCH.
Doctors and para- medical staffs of all the departments were provided training
on HIV/AIDS. The STD department networked closely with the other departments
such as OG, dermatology, surgery, general medicine, and microbiology, and
referred HIV positive patients to these departments for need based treatment.
PMCH linked with private nursing homes and other private doctors in Erode and
organized STI screening camps in the rural communities.
PLHAs were referred by NGOs, doctors and other agencies for
treatment. PLHAs that needed hospitalization were treated as in - patients in
the respective departments. Patients were charged based on their economic status
as free, partly charged and fully charged. The follow-up of patients were
undertaken by the NGO/agency which referred them for treatment. Over the past
year more than 1000 patients accessed clinical care from IRT PMCH. The model of
partnering with a quasi government medical college hospital is the first of its
kind in India.
Mainstreaming Initiative
APAC entered in partnership with SAATHII, to build the
capacity of the government medical fraternity (doctors, para- medical staffs and
support staffs) of Salem district. All doctors and para-medics from the
government head quarters hospital, district head quarters, PHCs and sub-centers
were trained on the different aspects of HIV/AIDS. The objective of the project
was to mainstream clinical care and treatment from the District head quarter
hospital down to the PHCs and sub-centers. The project has trained over 1000
medical fraternity and has equipped them to treat PLHA by giving them quality
treatment, without stigma and discrimination. This mainstreaming model was
appreciated by the government and has been replicated in other districts of
Tamil Nadu.
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Capacity Building of
Positive Networks
People Living with HIV/AIDS have come together to address
issues such as stigma, discrimination, lacunae in health care, and to help one
another during crisis situations.
The coming together of PLHA has resulted in the formation of
a national level network for PLHA, which has more than 25,000 members across the
country. Added to the national network, state level networks have been formed to
provide opportunity for PLHA to be involved locally. The state of Tamilnadu has
moved one step further, to initiate District Level Network (DLN).
APAC, as a part of the care and treatment initiative,
partnered with Indian Network of Positive people (INP+), to build the capacity
of network members. Five representatives from 20 DLNs were trained on topics
such as Home Based Care, Advocacy, Positive speaking and management of CBO. The
project was designed in such a way that it provided opportunity for the trained
individuals to train the other network members in their respective districts. A
total of 100 DLN representatives were trained by INP+. The participants, who
were trained, shared their learning to over 1000 network members spread over 20
districts.
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