HIV: Stigma

Baroness Gould of Potternewton Excerpts

Monday 1st December 2014 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Gould of Potternewton]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to develop a campaign to address HIV stigma along the lines of the “Time to Change” campaign on mental health stigma.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe) (Con)]

My Lords, the Department of Health funds the Terrence Higgins Trust for the HIV Prevention England programme, which helps to tackle stigma by social marketing programmes and by working closely with HIV voluntary organisations. Implementation of the department’s framework for sexual health improvement, 2013, will help reduce the stigma associated with HIV and sexual health issues. Public Health England is supporting the development of the “People Living with HIV Stigma Index” in the UK.

[Baroness Gould of Potternewton (Lab)]

My Lords, maybe I shall not start by asking the question that might be asked, which is: what is the Minister’s secret? I could ask that in the name of Prince Harry, who wants to know what everybody’s secret is, in order to try to encourage people to be able to say, “Yes, I am HIV positive”. But that is not the question I am going ask the Minister.

I thank the noble Earl for his reply, and yes, there are some activities going on—activities which, I have to admit, are not extremely well funded. It seems to me that the success of the Time to Change campaign, which I am delighted by, shows that anti-stigma campaigns can be, and are, very successful. Does the Minister agree that HIV is the other health condition consistently faced with stigma and discrimination? Why has there not been proper resourcing and funding so that we can have a similar anti-stigma campaign, to ensure that there is prevention and a reduction in the number of people who have HIV?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, there is certainly still too much stigma, although I believe opinion has moved in the right direction generally. The campaigns in the 1980s played a key part in providing information to the general public about AIDS and later HIV, but for some years it has, I think, been widely accepted that campaigns targeting groups at increased risk of HIV are more effective. That is why, for many years, my department has funded the Terrence Higgins Trust for targeted HIV prevention. HIV Prevention England, the unit set up by the Terrence Higgins Trust, is leading that, and is delivering innovative social marketing campaigns, including some mainstream advertising, on things like condom use and testing. There is also a DH-funded national programme, which has been successfully piloted with Public Health England.