The New Year is settling in well and we must now look to the future. We await with interest the abolition of the old Health Authorities on March 31st. There will be a new Strategic Health Authority for Staffordshire & Shropshire.
However, commissioning and funding powers (of services like us) are being passed to Primary Care Trusts which are seen as being closer to the communities they serve. It's up to all of us to make sure that HIV remains on the agenda for these new organisations.

All people living with HIV accessing treatment in North Staffordshire currently attend the G.U.M. clinic at the North Staffordshire City General. Ward 70, the Infectious Diseases Unit of the hospital has not yet appointed a new Infectious Diseases (ID) consultant, due to the fact that there are only a few ID consultants in the UK and even fewer trained each year, so they have to wait for an appropriate consultant to become available.
Cathy Ormiston has joined South Staffordshire Health Authority as the HIV Clinical Nurse Specialist. She is currently based at the Trentside Clinic in Stone, but also attends the clinics in Burton. Cathy can be contacted at the Trentside Clinic in Stone and is happy to help anyone with any issues surrounding HIV.

We are also seeing the direct effects of the changing epidemiology of HIV across Britain, and Staffordshire is no different. We have seen a significant increase in the number of referrals to Staffordshire Buddies. In the last six months we have seen the number of Service Users increase by over 25% across the county. The majority of the people living with HIV being referred on to us have been from ethnic minority and asylum seeker communities.
We are now dealing with a growing number of women living with HIV from a wide variety of cultures, which means that Rosie and the Women, Children and Families Team are having to quickly develop skills and knowledge in the issues surrounding working with a variety of cultures.

Chris Woolls, the new Director of Staffordshire Buddies, joined us before Christmas and brings with him an extensive understanding of both the delivery of services for those affected and infected by HIV as well as Sexual Health Promotion. Chris' time with the Sussex AIDS Centre and then THT South has given him years of practical experience and he has been involved in the drawing up of national frameworks such as "Making It Count", which has been adopted by central government in the National HIV & Sexual Health Strategy as a recommended planning tool.

Recruitment and training of new volunteers has taken a great leap forward in the past few months with the new training mechanism for probationary volunteers. The Training Group has written and collated a new style of Mentor Training that will take each new volunteer through a structured training programme that will last around six months. The first volunteers to begin this new regime are already working with their mentors on the first module of the training and we are looking forward to welcoming a number of new applicants into the organisation.

We now have an out-of-hours number to cover 8 am to 8 pm, seven days a week. The service is there to offer telephone support for those affected or infected by HIV in Staffordshire, giving advice and support over the phone, when the main office is shut. It is unfortunately not a call-out service. The number is 07976 688059.

The MESMEN team are about to have their planning day for on-going work in 2002-2003. It is intended that part of this process will include a region-wide look at the internet as a setting for meeting sexual partners and how we might work with this fact. Other forthcoming events include; a seminar looking at the needs of young gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people in South Staffordshire, and a campaign explaining to gay men the latest research on strong vs. regular condoms. Later in the year the team hopes to begin a large scale research project looking at the broad health needs of LGBT people in South Staffs.

Staff changes: Paul Roden, the Centre Services Worker, has moved on to a new post at Freshwinds. We are currently reviewing this function in consultation with funders.

Jason Daniels, MESMEN admin worker, is moving on to become a fire-fighter. This post has now been significantly expanded - interviews take place at the end of March. We'll update on all new personnel as they arrive.
On a similar note, I will be leaving at the start of March. I am moving to Wales to work with communities on environmental projects. I will be sad to leave as I have greatly enjoyed my time with Staffordshire Buddies.
Hope to see you all soon.

Pete Turner