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De-stigmatisation through Normalisation

 REPORTS (PDF) :  Full Report | Report Summary | Programme | Evaluation

Our third meeting brought together individual doctors and other professionals from 7 MENA countries; Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia with delegations of doctors, nurses, patient advocates and government representatives from most of the countries and entities in SEE. The same forum format was used again with delegates divided into 4 groups and all groups taking part in all forums.

The forums were:

Forum A: Diagnostics and drugs from pharma to patient. Licensing, regulatory, guidelines, supply chain and cost. What are the obstacles and what are some creative solutions?

Moderator: Josip Begovac |  Panellists: Daina Dzirkale, Dan Turner

 

Forum B: Women, children and HIV. The issues faced and how to overcome them

This forum was used to start exploring this huge subject and to start identifying issues, rather than suggesting solutions. Further in-depth work is required at future meetings, both professionalspecific and regional meetings.

Co-moderators: Gordana Dragovic-Lukic and Luminita Ene

 

Forum C: Positive change. How to overcome barriers to quality care – stigma, testing programmes, patient empowerment.

This forum looked at the spectrum of stigma – from the individual to the government – and what can be done about it. Issues around HIV testing and patient empowerment in relation to stigma were considered and discussed.

Moderator: Tristan Barber | Panellists: Mitja Blažič, Patrick Byrne

 

Forum D: Education, interface and society. Exploring the issues of treatment literacy and education, the relationships between patients and health care providers and the interface with society.

The main focus of this forum was education for patients, nurses and the general public to improve healthcare provider-patient relationships and increase access and uptake of counselling and testing programmes.

Moderator: Milena Stevanovic | Panellists: Cenk Soyer, Zoë Sheppard

 

Reports are available containing issues discussed, possible solutions and conclusion from the PDFs available to view and download from the links below. The full programme and evaluations can also be viewed and saved by selecting the appropriate link.

 

 REPORTS (PDF) : Full Report | Report Summary | Programme | Evaluation

 

‘I wanted to take this opportunity and thank you for inviting us to your meeting on behalf of the Egyptian delegate. I think it was a great opportunity to learn to know people and share experiences with healthcare staff from other countries. It gave me personally many ideas how to proceed with our anti-stigma projects … On the way back to Cairo, our Egyptian doctors discussed how to establish a clinic for HIV+ patients. I think this really shows how much influence the meeting had on them, which is really great. So many thanks for giving us this opportunity’ – Anna-Leena Lohinva, Egypt

GALLERY

 

 ‘Thank you for every thing. It was interesting experience in Malta. I learned so much about what is going in the Middle East and eastern Europe. I have (made a) good relation with Arab colleagues and I think that I can contribute to incoming meetings’ – Gamal Hassoun, Israel