NGNGO OUTREACH WORKERS CONTINUE TO DEVELOP THEIR CONSULTATIVE SKILLS
HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, is completely controllable if diagnosed in time, while many still associate HIV with AIDS and consider its diagnosis as a death sentence. In fact, AIDS is the final stage of HIV. Regular HIV testing can help to detect and control it in a timely manner.
On March 15-16 , 2022, the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia (NCID) conducted a regular training for the consultants of HIV prevention projects implemented by New Generation Humanitarian NGO (NGNGO). The training is important by the fact that people working directly with the key populations, in this case outreach workers, strengthen their knowledge on HIV and AIDS and acquire relevant professional skills to conduct HIV testing among their own beneficiaries. This in turn provides an opportunity to make the testing more accessible to the groups the organization works with.
The first day was a good opportunity for the participants to share their personal experience with the others. Through role-playing games, outreach workers strengthened their knowledge and learned how to behave in different situations. Through teamwork, they identified the stages involved in outreach work in practice. The events of the day were facilitated by Naira Sergeyan, monitoring and evaluation specialist of the programs of the Global Fund of the RA Ministry of Health.
The second day was dedicated to strengthening more theoretical knowledge. The training was continued by NCID employee Marine Asryan, who continued the training speaking about outreach work, the basic principles, and skills of HIV counseling, as well as the specifics of counseling in case of different test results.
Then, NCID employee Zori Mikayelyan spoke about social-psychological counseling skills and techniques.
Together with NCID doctor Tamara Hovsepyan, the participants discovered the peculiarities of self-testing, learned the testing technique, the correct interpretation of the research results. Astghik Davidyan, NCID doctor, spoke about the peculiarities of counseling on TB, and Lilit Margaryan, a doctor at the National Center for Addiction Treatment of the RA Ministry of Health.
At the end of the course the participants received certificates.
Reminder: since August 2017, the beneficiaries of the NGNGO already have the opportunity to undergo HIV testing for free, confidentially and anonymously through rapid oral mucosal transudate tests. This implies that a trained outreach worker as a consultant can conduct the testing both in the NGO office and in the beneficiary’s home as well as in any other places where it is possible to provide the necessary conditions for conducting the testing: temperature, lighting, confidentiality, etc.
You can see the video guide on HIV testing HERE.
HIV Prevention in Armenia project is implemented by New Generation Humanitarian NGO with financial support of the RA Ministry of Health from the funds of The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in cc the National Center for Infectious Diseases CJSC of the RA Ministry of Health.