Positive Ageing Conference Presentations

Positive Scotland, the joint project between Waverley Care and Terrence Higgins Trust, hosted ‘Positive Ageing' a conference exploring issues around HIV and ageing, on the 19th April 2011 at the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh.

The conference was attended by over 100 delegates from across Scotland.  Attendees included

• people living with HIV,
• principle HIV organisations in Scotland,
• the Care Commission,
• LGBT organisations,
• drugs projects,
• the NHS,
• local councils,
• housing associations. 

The full conference report and slides from the conference are now available below. 

Full Conference Report  

Click on the speaker to view their presentation slides.   The speakers were:

• Garry Brough from THT, who presented the findings from THT and Age UK’s 2010 National Study of people over 50 living with HIV;
• Gordon Scott, a Senior Consultant at NHS Lothian, who spoke on the impact of HIV, retrovirals and old age;
• Alastair Hudson from The People Living with HIV Stigma Index, who discussed HIV, stigma and older age;
• Callum Chomczuk from Age Scotland, who presented information on overall levels of ageing in Scotland;
• 4 people living with long term diagnosed HIV, who described their concerns, experiences and confidence about ageing with HIV.  (Sorry - these slides are not available) 

There were also four tailored workshops to gain specific feedback and ideas from conference delegates on the following topics:

• Disclosure, discrimiation and integration into services for older people
• Money, housing and finance for people as they get older
• Sexual health, sexual identity and sexual lives
• Physical and emotional impact of ageing with HIV.

The information gathered from the conference is currently being reviewed to inform the future work of Positive Scotland around HIV and Ageing. 

The conference was a great success and Positive Scotland received some excellent feedback from delegates including:
• “An excellent, informative and interesting day”
• “Please continue using this platform – excellent”
• “Good balance of participants”
 

Thanks to our funders The Stigma Index, Merck Sharpe & Dohme and The Big Lottery.