Marseille 2007
| Abstract #326 - National AIDS Hotline Services in Armenia | ||||
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Session: 26.60: Posters B (Poster) on Tuesday in Chaired by Authors: Presenting Author: Mrs Araks Gabrielyan - Armenian National AIDS Foundation, Armenia |
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| Additional Authors: | ||||
| Method / Issue: Issues: The National AIDS Hotline (Aidsline) in Armenia was launched in 2002. It provides free information and consultation on the issues related to HIV/AIDS prevention, safer sexual behavior, drug addiction and others. Aidsline's targets the population at large, but especially those belonging to the most vulnerable age groups, as well as infected and affected individuals. The Aidsline is designed specifically to enable individuals to discuss the advantages of undergoing HIV testing and how to change their risky behavior. Telephone callers often need more information or services that the Aidsline can provide. They need contact details of social, medical services, as well as psychological and psychiatric support, so this component is also a crucial part of Aidsline's work. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Project: The highly qualified specialists working for the National AIDS Hotline service are ready to answer any question related to HIV/AIDS prevention, safer sexual behavior, drug addiction and many others related to these issues. Analysis of calls shows that as of December 2006 among callers 52.1% are males, and 47.9% are females. Telephone lines work from Monday through Saturday. The main issues for which the calls are being originated are HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, drug addiction, etc. The analysis shows that the majority (56.3%) of callers were interested in issues, related to HIV/AIDS, 20% in sexually transmitted infections, 12.3% in safer sex and 8.9% in drug addiction related issues. There were 4.4% callers, who rang up because of curiosity. And we had 6.8% callers, who rang due to other reasons. The overwhelming majority of callers were of 25-29 (34.9%) age group. The Aidsline strictly sticks to the basic values: confidentiality, compassion, non-judgmental understanding and commitment to provide up-to-date, accurate information. Unlike face-to-face counseling, Aidsline allows callers to interact at their own convenience and independently choose the themes, they want to discuss. The anonymity is especially valuable in the situations, where open discussion challenges the cultural norms and taboos, as well as wherever HIV carries a strong stigma. | ||||
| Discussion: Lessons learned: It is very difficult to evaluate directly the efficacy of the Aidsline service. The fact that it is difficult for the Aidsline follow up on callers is a main weakness of the service. Evaluating the impact of the Aidsline is therefore based on indirect implications from the calls, especially those from repeated calls and the information received from some VCT sites on Aidsline motivating appeals of callers. As a trustworthy indicator of effective hotline service can be a total number of repeat callers. However, at the end of each conversation the telephone callers were asked whether they had been satisfied with the given information and consultation. Approximately 95% of callers were fully satisfied. The other 5% were not totally satisfied, because the reason for calling wasn't connected directly with HIV/AIDS and safer sexual behavior. Anyway most of them were offered all necessary information, related to the above-mentioned issues. In conclusion, it should be mentioned that the fact of consistent applications to Aidsline by the population during 4 years proves that the service organized in-time and properly. | ||||
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