Do you have the skills to get involved?

Chairs: Elisabeth Crafer, PW and Suresh Vaghela, Body Positive North West

Facilitators: Thandi Haruperi, UKC and Philip Palmer, THT ’s Positive Participation Group

Rapporteur: Gary Burns, NLTSG

This workshop was held twice during the conference and was attended by 60 people. The session gave people the opportunity to look at the skills needed to get involved in the planning and provision of their own and others treatment and care.

The facilitators encouraged people to think about what empowerment is and how people living with HIV can become empowered by recognising both the skills that they have and those that they may need.

One aspect of becoming involved means taking a proposal, looking at the proposal, acting upon the proposal and finally reporting back on the outcomes. It was pointed out that this is a circular process and that once the reporting back stage is reached, this will lead to new proposals. Within all of this the group established that people with HIV need the following skills in order to actively become involved:

Communication skills

Everyone has some of these and many people have more than one and in varied forms:

• Ability to use the Internet (email, bulletin boards, chat rooms)

• Friendly and approachable

• Verbal skills

• Ability to speak well on the telephone

• Written skills

• Ability to listen and then contribute

• Presentation skills

• Ability to speak more than one language

• Understanding language usage (could be either verbal, written, sign or body language)

• Good interpersonal relations (interagency and personal)

Practical skills

• Time management (being able to prioritise)

• Organisational skills

• Life experience

• Research and development skills

• Know your boundaries

• Access to resources (in all senses)

• Aims of achievement

• Understanding needs

• Using our experiences to help others

Influencing skills

• Filling in questionnaires

• Taking part in consultations

• Being responsive

• Persuading (convince) people for support (funders, peers and service providers)

• Making an impact

• Empowering oneself and others

Networking skills

• Ability to build relationships with key professionals and individuals

• Good team work (good interaction)

• Working with and for a group of people from different social and cultural backgrounds (diversity)

Personal skills

• Responsibility

• Respect

• Confidentiality

• Diplomacy

• A sense of humour

• Patience

• Supportive

• Trust

• Willingness

• Open mind (non-judgemental)

• Self-confidence (public speaking and making it exciting)

• Flexibility

Anger and/or passion (channelled positively) leading to:

• Determination

• Having a ‘bull shit’ detector

• Energy

• Determination

• Commitment

• Compassion

• Being pro-active (find information)

While people living with HIV may not possess all the skills, those present concluded that feeling empowered and becoming involved are not static skills but are dynamic skills that move and grow with time. Organisations can contribute to the process of skills development.

Organisational contributions to skills

• Giving feedback

• Providing access to all forms of resources, such as people, training, information and money

• Putting things into action (acting afterwards, putting the theory into practice)

• Providing knowledge or the means of addressing gaps

• Providing good access (physical and other)

KEY POINTS

• Tasks can sometimes seem overwhelming but don’t have to be

• Peers and organisations can both work on participation

• Developing skills is a commitment to personal development

• Many people have skills already but have not acknowledged them

RECOMMENDATIONS

• There should be an open and non-judgemental forum for sharing/networking

• Individuals and organisations should recognise the importance of transferable skills and experience

• There needs to be more training around managing stress, for example self-management courses (Expert Patient Programmes)

• Organisations and individuals need to explore ways to increase skills and build self-confidence

EVALUATION

This workshop was evaluated by 52 people between the ages of 27 and 62 (average age 41).

Gender

25 male, 24 female, 3 not stated

Ethnicity

23 black African, 19 white, 7 not stated, 3 other non-white

Sexuality

32 heterosexual, 15 gay, 3 not stated, 1 bisexual

Usefulness

Very useful	Useful	Not useful
54%(28)	36% (19)	10% (5)

22 people set action points

Getting more involved (46%)

• Get more involved in local community groups

• Engage in voluntary work etc.

• Will get involved in forums

Finding out more (27%)

• More education

• Find out about local help and organisations

• Networking, finding key players

Personal development (27%)

• Work to improve skills I do not have

• More training

• Try to attend positive groups

 

 

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