Tools to Strengthen Dialogue Between Women Living with HIV and Their Healthcare Providers

Offered as part of See Us, a global awareness campaign focused on helping address challenges faced by women living with HIV, this series of dialogue tools is designed to strengthen conversations between healthcare providers and women living with HIV. Made available in advance of World AIDS Day, December 1 2014, the tools were created by the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC). Spearheaded by IAPAC, they were developed in conjunction with the medical community and an expert steering committee of women living with and affected by HIV.

The context: Incidence of HIV amongst women globally is on the rise due to lack of awareness, stigma, discrimination, gender, violence, and other issues that can create barriers to healthy behaviour (i.e., seeking prevention, testing, care, and treatment services). To that end, the tools provide guidance for both patients and providers about mental and physical well-being, protection and care options, and other topics. A separate guide for each stage of a woman's life - adolescence, childbearing, and menopause, for example - is available, along with separate versions for patients and providers.