The Regional Coordinating Unit of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training network (UWI-CHART)will host a regional Training of Trainers Workshop for persons who will provide training to Health Care Workers Providing Psychosocial Support for People Living with HIV (PLHIV).

The training will take place at the Coco Palm Resort in St. Lucia on February 11 to 14, 2014. A total of twenty-nine participants representing, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, The Bahamas, Suriname and Dominica are expected to participate in the workshop.

Trainers will be trained by utilizing the “Train-Up to Teach back” methodology which, through a practical and hands on approach, equips participants with the skills to effectively deliver training.

Health care workers surveyed in 2009 identified the area of psychosocial support for persons infected with and affected by HIV. In addition, in a qualitative study conducted in Jamaica, Barbados and Haiti, focus groups also revealed that psychosocial support was requested by PLHIV. In this study, group members also voiced a desire that the health system should provide care to not just their bodies but also to their minds and souls. In response to these needs, a regional training programme - “Providing Psychosocial Support for People Living with HIV (PLHIV)” was developed and piloted by UWI-CHART in September, 2013 in Antigua and Barbuda with the aim of building capacity of health care workers to provide support to people living with HIV.

About the Regional Coordinating Unit (RCU) of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART) Initiative

The Regional Coordinating Unit (RCU) of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART) Initiative was established in the Department of Community Health & Psychiatry on the Mona Campus in 2003 under the direction of Professor Brendan Bain, who was the lead coordinator of the University of the West Indies HIV/AIDS Response Programme (UWI HARP) at the time.

The Unit serves as the coordinating point for a network of training centres that provide training for several categories of health care workers who deliver HIV and tuberculosis prevention, care and treatment within CARICOM (Caribbean Community and Common Market). The main business of the CHART Network has been to provide continuing education for health professional and community-based workers for prevention, care and treatment of HIV and AIDS. Funding for the CHART Network (its programme and units) has been provided by several U.S. entities: U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Global AIDSProgram, HIV/AIDS Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). In April 2012, the UWI-CHART became the Principal Recipient of a five-year cooperative agreement between UWI and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) as part of the United States’ President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Under the terms of the cooperative agreement, the scope of work has been broadened to include strengthening Human Resources for Health (HRH) in eleven Caribbean countries that are signatories to a US-Caribbean Regional HIV and AIDS Partnership Framework (PF), 2010-2014.

According to the UNAIDS Regional Fact Sheet 2012 for Latin America and the Caribbean, there were 230,000 Caribbean people living with HIV. Adult prevalence in 2011 was about 1% which is higher than any other world region outside sub-Saharan Africa. After sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean is one of the most heavily affected regions in the HIV epidemic.

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Elva Clarke or Sherie Cox at 1-876-977-2928 x.233 or 977-2645 x.236 or email at eclarke@chartcaribbean.org or scox@chartcaribbean.org.