The manual “Ageing with HIV – Access to Comprehensive Care” covers the key needs that should be recognised and acknowledged in the continuum of care for people living and ageing with HIV, with the aim of being used in health, social and other related institutions. It is also intended for people living with HIV and their families throughout the region to help them meet these needs within various systems.
The fact is that today people living with HIV as a chronic disease are living longer, and in addition to HIV-related treatment and care, they need to be provided with access to other services that are important for preserving and maintaining overall health as they age and lead successful, productive and fulfilling lives.
This manual describes the needs, challenges and characteristics of people living and ageing with HIV in central and southeast European countries, often collectively referred to as the Balkan countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia). The manual was developed based on the need for a coordinated and individualised approach to long-term care within a range of health and psychosocial services that go beyond HIV infection itself, and addresses them taking into account some specificities of this particular region.
With advances in antiretroviral treatment, an increasing number of people living and ageing with HIV are increasingly in need of social and clinical support. With ageing, new health and psychosocial conditions and needs arise, and we sometimes wonder whether we know enough about them in general, and especially in the case of people ageing with HIV.
Health and psychosocial care providers face new challenges in knowledge, experience and the ability to appropriately respond to the unique and complex challenges and needs that arise with ageing in people living with HIV as a chronic condition, in order to provide adequate support and reduce dependency on care for people living and ageing with HIV later in life.
This manual is intended for healthcare professionals at all levels of healthcare as well as for people living and ageing with HIV, and is therefore written in simpler, less technical language in order to be understandable and useful to all. Based on experience and scientific knowledge, it integrates a long-term, patient-oriented approach to the care of people living and ageing with HIV, including preventive programmes, management and treatment of comorbid health conditions, mental health, a personalised approach to healthcare and psychosocial support, and the elimination of stigma and discrimination within the healthcare system.
In order to effectively and properly respond to these needs, enabling the user to manage their own condition while at the same time ensuring awareness of the complexities of HIV infection treatment, some form of manual is needed that will also allow the user to more easily recognise and become familiar with changes in their own body, to learn about the ways in which they can take care of it, and thus improve their own quality of life.
For HIV, as with many life-threatening diseases, medical science allows us to live longer, but that is not enough to live well. We must also be able to live a good life. We are therefore confident that this Manual will help both health and psychosocial professionals in fulfilling their life’s calling, as well as helping people living with HIV to live longer and with a better quality of life.
This Manual is the result of a joint collaboration between experts in the field of health and psychosocial care and civil society organisations from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia, as a result of joint efforts and regional networking in achieving the effective development of sustainable and equitable long-term care systems and healthy ageing for all.
The online version of the manual is available here.