Positive Prevention

• What is Positive Prevention?
• Values of the Positive Prevention Department
• What Does Positive Prevention Look Like?
• Positive Prevention Resources
• Positive Prevention Articles
• How Can I Get Involved?

Values of the Positive Prevention Department

1. To encourage and foster the involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS in all aspects of health promotion and prevention activities.
2. To develop health communication and prevention strategies targeted specifically to people living with HIV/AIDS.
3. To promote the recognition that people living with HIV/AIDS are part of the solution to the impacts of the disease and should be included in prevention efforts.
4. To recognize and empower the sexuality and sexual health of people living with HIV/AIDS.
5. To promote risk/harm reduction behaviors and activities.
6. To protect and promote human rights and dignity issues for people living with HIV/AIDS including the right to privacy, health care, confidentiality, informed consent, and freedom from discrimination.
7. To ensure programs and services are available, accessible, and relevant to the diverse populations of people living with HIV/AIDS.

What Does Positive Prevention Look Like?

Prevention activities and strategies are as diverse and unique as the issues they work to address. Click on the links below to see some of the possibilities.

• [ Issues Related to Positive Prevention ]
• [ Positive Prevention Activities ]

Positive Prevention Resources

• A Vancouver Guide to Sex Positive

  The Sex Positive guide is an innovative prevention resource targeted to gay men that contains information, tips and resources to support a healthy and fulfilling sex life for people living with HIV.

  Whether you are looking for ideas on safer club drug use, strategies for negotiating safer sex, or information on local meeting places for sex, a Vancouver guide to sex positive will be a great resource for you to use and share.

  [ Sex Positive Guide ]

  To obtain a copy of the Sex Positive guide, please email prevention@bcpwa.org or call 604.893.2225.

• It's Complicated Campaign

  BCPWA Society's first prevention campaign is targeted at HIV-positive gay men. Future BCPWA Society prevention initiatives will be targeted towards people from other groups. Health Canada and the [ Vancouver AIDS Memorial Society ] has provided some of the funding for this prevention campaign.

  This campaign explicitly includes positive gay men in the prevention messages, and is the first prevention campaign in Canada to do so. The campaign includes four posters and postcards for distribution in venues frequented by gay men. Each poster deals with a particular situation where gay men may face challenges in maintaining safer behaviours.

  The campaign is meant to encourage discussion about HIV between positive people, and in the community at large.

  Since the beginning of the epidemic, over 7,000 gay men in British Columbia have been infected with HIV, and gay men remain one of the major groups at risk for HIV.

  • [ Baths Poster ]
    The anonymity of the bath scene allows guys to engage in sexual activity without discussing HIV. Negative guys and positive guys often make different assumptions about the other person's HIV status when HIV-status isn't discussed: negative guys tend think their sex partner must be negative, and positive guys tend think their sex partner must be positive.

  • [ Party 'n Play Poster ]
    Gay men in the leather scene can be at risk at play parties, especially when sexual activity is combined with drug use. Research consistently shows that alcohol or drug use can predispose people to taking risks.

  • [ Take Risks Poster ]
    Gay men, especially younger gay men, are at particular risk in new relationships. While younger men often start out using condoms in new relationships, after a short time they may stop using them before discussing HIV with their partners.

  • [ Outdoor Poster ]
    Like the baths, outdoor sex provides a level of anonymity for sexual activity, but unless guys are prepared for their park encounters, condoms may be even less available than at the baths.

• Vancouver Harm Reduction Manifesto

  This document details a number of guiding principals reflecting a harm reduction approach to drug addiction in Vancouver. The document and its principles were adopted by BCPWA Society in November 2000.
  • [ Vancouver Harm Reduction Manifesto ]

Positive Prevention Articles

• [ Selling Safer Sex to PWAs - Editorial ]
  Discussion on how safer sex messages should be targetted to HIV positive people.
• [ Positive Prevention Primer ]
  What does positive prevention, or prevention for HIV positive people look like in the context of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention?
• [ HIV Disclosure and Prevention ]
  Stigma and organ transplantion.
• [ Can We Talk About HIV Prevention - Editorial ]
  Effective prevention can only be built on the healthy sexuality and good mental health of HIV-positive people.
• [ Sex and Sensibility ]
  Viral load and HIV transmission
• [ Queers, Junkies and Harm Reduction ]
  Abstinence isn't always a realistic option.
• [ A Prickly Issue ]
  Needle exchange programs are long overdue in Canadian prisons.

How Can I Get Involved?

Opportunities to become involved in Positive Prevention include:

• Sending in comments or ideas for a program or service you think is needed
• Joining the Prevention Committee and participating in the process of reaching our goals
• Becoming a volunteer member of the BCPWA Positive Prevention department

There are many opportunities to become involved! Without your involvement there is no positive prevention.

For more information contact the Positive Prevention department at 604.893.2225 or prevention@bcpwa.org or volunteer services 604.646.5377 or volunteer@bcpwa.org.