Peer Support for Persons with HIV/AIDS
October 19, 2010
Hosted by Dr. Gordon Atherley
[Download MP3] [itunes] [Bookmark Episode]
Guest Information
Episode Description
Krishna Stone is Assistant Director of Community Relations in the Communications Department at Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), based in New York. Glyn Townson is Chair, BC Persons With AIDS Society, based in Vancouver, Canada. They explain the mission and histories of their organizations. They talk about the peer-support services their organizations provide to their respective communities. They discuss the role of peer support in the various stages of HIV/AIDS. They explore the question of when, for a person with HIV/AIDS, is it important to keep private the information that he or she has the condition, and when the information should be shared. They describe the quality of life for persons with HIV/AIDS, and how peer support helps improve the quality of life. They say what changes they believe are most needed to enhance support for persons with HIV/AIDS. They tell us whose best interests are served if the decision makers in our society implement the changes they are advocating.
Family Caregivers Unite!
Archives Available on VoiceAmerica Variety Channel
Family caregivers are the people who provide care to partners, parents, children, brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, neighbors and even co-workers. They are the people who provide care when everyone else has gone home. They are the people who organize the functioning of the home for the person with special needs, and for the family as a whole. They are the coordinators of care, the managers of appointments, the preventers of loneliness, and the makers of decisions even to the point of Power of Attorney. And they are so often people who themselves are burdened with their own health challenges and who may be in only marginally better health than the persons to whom they are providing family caregiving.
Dr. Gordon Atherley
Dr Gordon Atherley holds the British equivalent of the Canadian PhD and MD degrees, and LLD, Honoris Causa, from Canada’s Simon Fraser University. His awards include Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, UK. His medical specialties are occupational medicine and public health.
As first President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, the Canadian equivalent of the US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, he led the creation of Canada’s electronic information service in occupational health and safety, now used in more than 40 countries.
In academia, he held senior, tenured, full-time positions, including departmental chair, in university faculties of physics, engineering, and medicine. He is the author of a textbook and numerous articles and publications.
Since retiring from medical practice, he’s built up Greyhead Associates, which critically researches the safety, effectiveness and fairness of health services for persons with special needs.
Through Virtual Care International, a company of which he’s President, he’s involved in providing sensible technology to family caregivers to help them with their responsibilities, workloads, and concerns.
Now an activist, he urges family caregivers to unite because, more and more, it’s not just their families who depend on them, it’s also the healthcare system as a whole, as it struggles to meet more and more needs of more and more people.
