A partnership of community-based health care stakeholders provides accessible HIV/AIDS-specific health consultations for people living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) in the rural community of Guelph and Wellington County. It is also a vehicle for medical mentorship of family physicians and nurses to enhance their knowledge and skills to be better able to serve PHAs.
Accessible HIV/AIDS-specific health care is vital to PHAs. Scientists know that early intervention is a better way of dealing with HIV. Maintaining good health with the help of a specialist and preventing illness are key to living long and living well with HIV. This Clinic allows PHAs to get specialized care in their own community on an ongoing basis.
Improving the knowledge and skill level of local doctors in dealing with HIV/AIDS is a critical aspect of the Clinic. The mentorship/training component sees local health care professionals having an opportunity to sit in on their patients and other PHAs health consultations. The specialists expertise and knowledge of immunology are invaluable and with the level of support provided by the Clinic, more doctors are willing to become involved.
This is a model of a small community HIV/AIDS health care well used and respected and serves as a positive example of community-based and directed health care in Ontario and Canada. It is a bottom-up model which is community responsive, fiscally responsible and accessible.
