HIV Epidemic Development in Taiwan
By December 31, 2014, the total number of HIV cases was 29,665; 93.66% are male and 6.34% are female. The new cases in 2014 were 2,236, which accounted for the third highest record. One of the major risk factors for transmission in 2014 was MSM (man who have sex with man), 1,637 within were new cases, slightly reduced compared to last year. The government provides Methadone treatment and free syringe as harm reduction strategies, and was successfully lowered the new IDU (Intravenous Drug Users) cases to 52 in 2014. Compared to 2013, other than the IDU cases, all the statistics above decreased, and the new cases hit the 4th record high in the Taiwan epidemic history.
94.68% of the HIV/AIDS population is between 15-49 years of age. The people infected with HIV/AIDS are getting younger and the main risk factor is through unsafe sex. It is important that the HIV/AIDS prevention educations should start early in school. The Ministry of Education must include AIDS education in students' textbook.
1. Origin and Mission
Taiwan Lourdes Association is established by the Daughters of Charity in 1960s,first known as "Lourdes Home", and is dedicated in caring for the orphans and disadvantaged children. In 1997, we saw a massive influence of HIV/AIDS toward infected people and their families. "Lourdes Home"decided to switch its focus on the HIV/AIDS agenda, and officially registered as a NGO in 2006.
1.1.Mission
Taiwan Lourdes Association is a non-profit organization.Due to the call of the gospel and based on the principles of justice and love, we provide diverse and broad services for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in order to improve their quality of life.
1.2.Objectives
Provide Community-Based Services to Improve the Quality of Life ofPLWHA.
Campaign for the Human Rights ofPLWHA.
Educate the General Public to Understand the Impact of HIV and AIDS on Individuals and Break off the Prejudice, Stigma and Discrimination.
2.Highlights of Activities
Since its establishment in 1997, we celebrate the 18thyear of Taiwan Lourdes Association this year. The activities of this year can be divided into four directions:
2.1.Stability
We have a stable number of newly opened multiple-need cases. Although the number of cases of Taichung office slightly decreased, continuous service remained stable. According to the outcome from last three years, multi-year and extended services due to multiple needs continue to increase. A more efficient approach to combines resources of all sectors should work out in the future. The general human resources also remained stable. Only a few of living care peers were transferred between Taichung and Taipei offices, and there wasn't any impact on relative service.
2.2.Development
As for the Health Management APP, we updated the Android-based version and launched iOS-based version, by including user's experience to meet their needs closely. We worked tightly with other AIDS activist organizations and successfully amended the AIDS regulations in Taiwan. The amendment was implemented in February 2015. Lourdes Fans Radio merged the "Pilipala Boom" radio, operated by Positive League, and became Plus Radio in 2014. Apart pursuing the "The Living Situation of PWLHA in Taiwan" survey, we also launched new surveys on public attitude and on HIV physician / patient relationship in order to draw a more thorough face of HIV/AIDS in Taiwan.
2.3.Growth
Lourdes Transition Farm and virtual e-service continue to develop. After diverse social skill training, our participants now become staffs. The production and sales outcome both increased. To catch up the trend of the society, we launched one-to-one and group chat services using popular LINE app. This service is welcomed by the community and is continuing to evolve and innovate. The HIV test service seeks an increase in topics, clients, as well as in female clients. The Night Counseling service has an increase over entire client counseling service by 10%, consequently, we plan to extend peer service to nighttime in order to meet the demand.
2.4.Cultivation
Given that the aging topic has gained increasing attention; we organized to focus on groups and symposiums for middle-aged and elderPLWHA. We also published handbooks for this population, by combining researched literatures and practice. We will continue to get deeper insight on these topics in 2015 and start a pilot long-term care service in Taichung office. On recreational drug issues, the Harm Reduction Support Groups continue to run on a weekly basis. We successfully depicted the ecology of the community, collected issues, and provided appropriate assistance. Due to its success, we were invited by National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) and public Drug Abuse Prevention centers to share our experiences either on their workshops or as trainers.
2.5.Table of Highlighted Outcomes
Content | Outcome | Remarks | |
DIRECT SERVICE | |||
Community Care | Case Management, social resources, advocacy | Cases with multiple needs opened: 326; M/F ratio: 9/1 Case with simple need opened: 2055 | Service forPLWHA: more than 24000 times. |
Financial Aid | Housing, medical or meals expenses | More than 2145 times; total aid amount=NT1,635,300. | |
Counseling Services | Support through telephone and formal counseling | 8110 times | |
Employment Services | Information, matching, “second-hand” social skill training | 496 times | |
Referral Service | Financial resources, housing, human rights, medical care, employment | 150 times | |
Halfway Shelter Home | Housing, nutrition supplies, life support, interpersonal communication skill training | New moved-in: 42 people; | |
Lourdes Transition Farm | Farming, book club, assisting the farmer’s irrigation works, spiritual growth courses, leisure activities | Resident: 15 people; | |
Outreach Service | Hospitals, client’s home or other places | 376 times | |
Phone Call and Internet Information Services | Providing information by telephone, LINE, emails, and internetforum system. | Telephone service: 1528 times; | |
Medical Information Services | We invited chief nurses of infectious diseases department and case managers to provide information on HIV medication and side effects. | 3 conferences and 49 invitees | |
HIV Test Service | Providing anonymous HIV test | 325 services | |
Drop-in Friendship Centers | Support, leisure, meeting, conferences | 2736 services | |
Workshops | Topics on treatment, adaptation, intimacy, drug use, right advocacy | 30 workshop; 527 participants | |
Support Groups | Newly diagnosed gay men support group, Support group in Taoyuan, Love to smile women support group, Middle Age Support Group, Family of positives support group, Harm Reduction Support Groups, Positives support group in Taichung | 218 sessions; 1610 participants. | A Harm Reduction Support Groups for non-infected people was created. |
Recreational Activities | We organized outings for a day, single mingle or a weekend getaway, meals together, special programs for festivals and Christmas. | 91 activities; 1316 participants. | |
Memorial Services | To show those HIV friends who have passed away were remembered by the workers and other HIV friends. | 2 services; 39 participants. | |
Online Chat-Room | Information providing in chatroom and peer support | 50 services; 708 participants. | |
Online Services | Facebook, Line, Forum | 9438 times. | |
Prison Visits and Counseling | Individual/group/correspondence counseling and visits | 240 sessions; 16778 individual counseling services; 195 group counseling services; 3164 participants. 258 correspondence services. | |
Happy Life Drug & AIDS Conference | Campaign for positive attitude, esteem and confidence. | 14 participants. | |
Positive League | Stimulating rights advocacy, self-help and mutual assistance | 9 meetings, 136 participants. Actual members: 35 ppl. | |
Drug abuse Family Support Group | To reduce the harm of drugs on mind and body, andhelp the clients return to their families and to society. | 121 cases; 1844 phone call follow-ups; 115 financial aid cases (NT237627); 34referrals; 181 group counseling services (573 participants). 1 workshop (72 participants). | |
STAFF MEMBERS TRAINING AND SUPERVISION | |||
Continuous Training | HIV treatment and counseling, social work treatment skills, group work, case management, psycho-social assessment, skills on computer software, public relationships, fundraising..etc. | Total training time:1272.5 hours; average training per member: 61 hours. | |
Supervision | Individual and group supervision | Individual/group supervision: 99sessions Casestudy: 129 sessions | |
Volunteers Recruitment and Training | Recruiting and training new volunteers | 4 recruiting sessions; 88 participants; 5 training andsupervisingsessions; 78 participants. | |
Workshops for Helpers | On-demand training courses and workshops | 31 on-demand training courses, 988 participants; | |
EDUCATION AND PUBLICATION | |||
Education | HIV/AIDS education toward schools teachers or students, and the general public. | 156 sessions, 11838 participants. (an increase of 97 sessions, compared to 2013) | |
Publications | Brochures and e-books | Totalcirculations: 42500 copies; 36 e-books. |
2.6.Publications
We published 17 brochures, guidelines and reports, all of them are updated this year.
3.Internet Outreach : Website and Facebook Outreach
3.1.Analysis for website use
127,213 people visited our website and pages viewer (browsing rate) reached 621,921. New visitors continue to increase. The growing number of visitors from Chungli and Taoyuan shows the efficiency of our service in Taoyuan. With the popularity of smart phones, the development of a mobile version of our website is necessary. The five mostly viewed pages are Homepage, Anonymous test sites list, Forum, Plus radio portal page, About HIV/AIDS.
3.2.Analysis forFacebookuse
421,358 people visited our Facebook pageand pages viewer (browsing rate) reached 1,187,448. Our Facebook page provides HIV/AIDS information, preventive messages and general life information. We are also entrusted by the Public health department of New Taipei City to maintain the Facebook page of Happy Bus 192-1, a project that will continue in 2015.
4.Research and development
4.1.Lourdes Health Management APP
We developed the first Android-based Health Management APP in Asia and received an enthusiastic ovation. We counted more than 3000 downloads, due to the success of Android-based version, we launched the first iOS-based version in March 2014 and updated the Android-based version at the same time.
5. International Exchange and Research Activities
5.1.Helpers Training and Empowerment for PLWHA
We set up three models of case management and implemented software system at Caritas Shengjing Social Center of Liaoning in Shenyang. The three-year partner and family therapy workshop in Xian, also came to term and qualified several family workers. Huang Hao-Jie from Wuhan and Lin Xiao from the Home Of Red Ribbon of Beijing came to Taiwan in June, for a two-week courses on HIV/AIDS community care and harm reduction awareness-empowering. We also send a delegation to Hong Kong in August to visit HKCSPS33 drug abuse rehabilitation center. In September, we, together with Taiwan International Media and Education Association (TIMEA) and Positive League,invitedthe famous American HIV/AIDS-LGBT rights activistPeter Staley to meet up with TaiwanesePLWHA community.
5.2.International Conferences
In June, Paul Hsu, the executive director, and Howard Chiu, international coordinator, participated in the 14thWorldPride Human Rights Conference in Canada. During this event gathering more than 500 participants from 52 countries all over the world, they presented the experience of our Drop-in Friendship Center in Taichung under the title "LGBT Health Culture Community Center of Central Taiwan Establishment Experience". In November, Paul Hsu and Jiachyi Yang participated in the 3rdMainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Summit on HIV/AIDS. During this event, Paul Hsu directed a HIV/AIDS case caring workshop and gave a speech on the anti-discrimination strategy in medical field.
6.Events and Prizes
6.1.Major events
2014.04 | Taiwan Lourdes Association worked with other activist groups to form an alliance for the amendment of HIV/AIDS regulations and proposed a community version. |
2014.06 | We organized a special exposition entitled “The forgotten AIDS years”. We created a dialogue with the public by means of memorial quilt and installation art, in order to sensitize the awareness of the stigma on HIV/AIDS. |
Street advocacy activity “Love, no difference” in Taichung. | |
2014.08 | Launched internet radio “Plus Radio”, a platform for “Lourdes Fans Taipei” (every Tuesday) and “Pilipala Boom” (every Thursday). The latter is operated by Positive League. |
In response to a case in Taiwan, we organized a workshop on HIV disclosure to intimate and discussed over the HIV/AIDS decriminalization and how to protect oneself in juridical aspect. | |
2014.09 | We published the outcome of “The Living Situation of PWLHA in Taiwan” survey according to which the misunderstanding toward HIV/AIDS is still very prevalent in Taiwan. A campaign “Simple Love” was launched following the survey. Several eminent people jointly appealed to public support toward PWLHA. |
2014.10 | Launched “HIV/AIDS ≠ Crime” mass street action in Taipei. |
2014.11 | Participated in Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Summit on HIV/AIDS. |
Workshop on middle-aged PWLHA, appealing to helpers’ awareness on this topic. Published middle-aged PWLHA guidelines in order to help them to age positively. | |
Published the outcome of HIV/AIDS physician / patient relationship survey, followed by the “3Q” and “Believe in yourself” campaigns. |