HIV AIDS

Expert Patient Programme

In Africa today, more than 2.3 million children are living with HIV/AIDS. Of those children, approximately 75% are not receiving life-saving ARV treatment. A number of factors lead to these statistics:

• Lack of capacity and acute shortage of trained health workers, which prevents the provision of high quality HIV care to all children and families living with HIV/AIDS.
• Isolated clinics, so patients in rural areas have trouble obtaining access to the medical assistance they need.
• Inadequate government provision of resources and attention to the needs of HIV/AIDS patients.
• Stigma attached to HIV has a major impact on the ability of healthcare teams to provide effective solutions.

One to One Children’s Fund raises funds for the Expert Patient Programme in 49 PATA affiliated paediatric HIV clinics in 15 sub-Saharan countries. Expert Patients are adult HIV/AIDS patients who are trained to use their own experience and knowledge to help other patients or carers of patients. The overall aims of the programme are preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and improving the treatment of children who are HIV positive.

The Expert Patient Programme has two specific goals:

1. Increase the number of Expert Patients at PATA facilities in order to alleviate the
     resource constraints on doctors, nurses and other professional staff.

2. Improve the lives of Expert Patients by giving them a stipend and healthcare training.

This programme offers a solution to the problem of chronic staff shortages in HIV clinics.

PATA implements this programme from South Africa and works in partnership with One to One Children’s Fund to develop and improve the project.

The Expert Patient Programme has the following benefits:

• Eases the work load of clinic teams, freeing doctors and nurses to concentrate on complex procedures
• Expands the capacity of small clinics to reach more patients
• Uses the knowledge and expertise of HIV/AIDS patients in a positive and
  affirming way
• Contributes to the household income of the Expert Patients

“I give HIV education, adherence counselling and HIV health talks. I encourage families to work together and to bring their children in for HIV testing and care,” says Christine Adhiambo Ochieng, 23, describing her job as an Expert Patient in Kenya.

“[Working as an Expert Patient] has empowered me to take steps ahead. I have completed guidance and counselling [training] ... to polish my counselling career. I am also planning to do child counselling so that I can attend to both infected and affected children physically and psychologically,” says Christine.

PATA Expert Poster

Progress Report

“When we started working in the clinic it was the first meaningful thing we ever did with our lives outside from the usual church duties and activities.”

Claudine, Expert Patient at Uitenhage Clinic