Reducing the HIV/AIDS stigma in the workplace
By Hon Jing Yi |
Posted: 27 January 2012 1621 hrs

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Reducing the HIV/AIDS stigma in the workplace

SINGAPORE: The Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and Health Promotion Board (HPB) have revised the guidelines to help companies manage HIV/AIDS in the workplace.

The aim is to better help companies establish workplace HIV/AIDS policies.

It also aims to educate employees and reduce the stigma associated with the disease.

Representatives from about 50 companies have pledged to adopt the new guidelines.

More people are now accepting those living with HIV – the level of acceptance for people living with HIV has increased from 22 per cent to 42 per cent between 2007 and 2010.

But the Ministry of Health believes more can be done to de-stigmatise the disease.

Minister of State for Health Amy Khor said: “Employees living with HIV still frequently experience discrimination in their workplace, both during their period of employment and during their application process.

“A common form of discrimination occurs when employees are dismissed, not on the basis of their performance, but because of their HIV status.”

Under the guidelines, companies will get practical information on how to educate staff about HIV and its prevention.

This will help to reduce fear and protect staff so that they do not engage in behaviour that put them at risk of contracting HIV.

Employers will also be given tips on how to adjust their internal processes to support HIV/AIDS prevention programmes and employees who suffer from the disease.

The final tier is aimed at removing workplace discrimination.

Health Promotion Board CEO Ang Hak Seng said: “Our HIV programmes today are not standalone programmes. But they are bundled with the Workplace Infectious Disease Education (WIDE) programme.

“And by doing so, we’re actually lowering the signature level of the HIV programmes and I must share with you that it has been very successful.”

The message is that even those with HIV/AIDS can make valuable contribution in their workplaces.

One company that has been open about the issue is Standard Chartered Bank. It has implemented a “Living with HIV” programme in its offices worldwide. It now wants to share its experience with the community.

Standard Chartered Bank Corporate Affairs senior manager Romany Parakrama said: “It is done by our staff members themselves, so although they are not medical experts, it’s a peer programme which makes it easier for people to understand, to ask questions.

“So in Singapore, yes, we have reached out to nearly 50,000 people in Singapore with our staff and externally.”

There are some 4,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Singapore, and seven in 10 of them are working adults between 30 and 59 years old.

- CNA/wk

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A groundbreaking innovation, the Global Fund was conceived a decade ago at the World Economic Forum as a way to respond to the growing threat of the three killer diseases. In partnership with other programs, the Fund has provided treatment to 3.3 million people living with HIV/AIDS and enabled over 1 million HIV-positive women to protect their babies from transmission of the disease. The Fund has also financed the detection and treatment of 8.6 million cases of tuberculosis and distributed 230 million insecticide-treated nets for the prevention of malaria.

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HACKENSACK – Maryann Collins began working as a nurse at Hackensack University Medical Center caring for HIV/AIDS patients and their families more than 25 years ago because she felt “no one needed more advocacy than this particular group of people.”

Collins, a Demarest resident, was recently honored as a national HIV Hero, for her work with the HIV community.

She first became interested in helping the HIV community when she was a hospice nurse.

“Most of the patients that we saw were cancer patients,” said Collins. “But then we started to see the patients coming from the city with this new disease that they really at that point didn’t have a name for.”

Once HIV/AIDS patients began coming to the hospital HUMC started a hospice to see these patients. However, many nurses had husbands who were dead set against them working with these patients.

“There was a lot of ignorance,” said Collins. “I felt that someone had to do it and my husband was very supportive of me and trusted that I was going to be safe and he supported whatever I wanted to do in that area.”

Collins took it upon herself to get educated – she went to New York City and then to San Francisco to learn as much as possible about HIV. She received her master’s degree in psychiatric nursing and her specialty in catastrophic illnesses from Pace University, and become known as the hospice AIDS nurse.

As a result of caring for HIV/AIDS patients, Collins began to connect with “New Jersey Buddies” and was approached to start a support group on Wednesday evenings.

“I agreed to do it for a little while and now I am still doing it,” she said.

But the support group Collins started was only the beginning.