New community platform on HIV and mental health: in 10 EU languages

EATG

On 23 January 2023 the EATG’s HIV and Mental Health Platform went live.

This new online space is intended to foster collaboration and experience exchange across Europe and Central Asia in addressing the mental health needs of people living with and vulnerable to HIV.

EATG has been prioritising mental health and HIV since early 2020. This previous work shone a light on mental health within HIV prevention, support, treatment and care across Europe and Central Asia. In doing so, it expanded EATG’s engagement on HIV and mental health to a wider range of stakeholders.

The Platform is the next major step in this process. The Platform will have three main aims:

1. To promote implementation of EATG’s recommendations on HIV and mental health.
2. To share good practice in providing mental health and psychosocial services to people living with and vulnerable to HIV, especially relative to community-based and lay or non-professional services..
3. To support the development of the first European Conference on HIV and mental health (tentatively scheduled for early 2024).

The Platform will explore key ways to ensure a more effective continuum of care as PLHIV move between community-based, primary, secondary and tertiary levels of mental health systems.

The resulting discussion is expected to further the process of clarifying a framework for mental health task sharing across community, healthcare and specialist levels in the HIV field, with focus on under-served populations and Europe’s sub-regional differences.

The Platform will be accessible in 10 European languages in addition to English: Croatian, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian.

For further information, please contact Anton Basenko (anton.basenko@eatg.org) or Mario Casio (marcascio@gmail.com)

To register to be a Platform member, please complete the brief online form at:
www.hivandmentalhealth.org.