Marseille 2007
| Abstract #207 - Nationwide Online Counselling as a Tool of Quality Assurance in HIV-Prevention | ||||
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Session: 36.1: Prevention lessons (Parallel) on Tuesday @ 14.00-16.00 in 5 Chaired by Theo Sandfort, William Zule Authors: Presenting Author: Mr Karl Lemmen - Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe e.V., Germany |
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| Additional Authors: | ||||
| Aim: To show how a nationwide system of online counselling supports the efforts of quality assurance in the prevention work of the AIDS service organizations (ASO) in Germany. | ||||
| Method / Issue: There are about 120 ASO under the roof of the Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe e.V. (DAH). When implementing HIV prevention in the internet one has to bear in mind that the net does not know national borders or distances. The only border which exists there is that of language. This means in the case of German that one ASO which offers counselling in this language is sufficient. In 2005, the DAH therefore built up a national cooperation of 20 ASO in 19 cities from the Danish Border to Lake Constance. Meanwhile, 30 counsellors form a nationwide virtual team which is organized in 5 day teams (Monday thru Friday). To share the time and money between the participating ASOs each counsellor takes responsibility for only one day of the week. Before starting work all counsellors signed a form which specifies the common standards of quality in online counselling, and attended a special training. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Lessons Learnt: Within the first 15 months more than 4.000 questions had been sent to www.aidshilfe-beratung.de which the counsellors answered within one or two days. Not only the clients are highly satisfied with this new way of HIV counselling. Evaluation shows that the counsellors appreciate being a member of the virtual team and having the opportunity to discuss questions und problems in HIV counselling with their colleagues which enhances the quality of the prevention work in the regional ASO. | ||||
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