» Sussex Beacon update
Rachel Pegg visits Sussex Beacon as it prepares for World Aids Day
Sussex Beacon has special reason to celebrate World Aids Day on Monday. This time last year the future of Brighton’s Aids and HIV treatment centre in Bevendean Road was uncertain. It was partway through a year in which Hove’s Martlets Hospice was helping to reorganise its troubled finances. There had been redundancies, the ten patient rooms were rarely all full and no one knew if there was a future for a specialist respite centre such as this – one of only two in the country.
As 2008 ends, things look vastly different. The Martlets has stepped back to allow Sussex Beacon to regain its independence. There are seven new members of staff, including general manager Kat Williams, former director of women’s mental health charity Threshold, and clinical manager Andrew Powell, who has extensive experience in the Aids and HIV field in Sussex.
Now all ten rooms are consistently occupied, morale is high and the future looks much more secure – provided Sussex Beacon retains the support of the community and of statutory funders.
Kat said: “We were pleased the Martlets kept us going and now we want to move forward as the Sussex Beacon with our own identity.”
Sussex Beacon is working hard to reinvolve service users and has a new service user forum in December. On site, staff and service users mix together in communal relaxation areas. Andrew said when he arrived he saw this as a real strength: “I am very impressed by the commitment of the staff here. We are working towards real integration and meeting people’s needs.”
About 80 percent of service users are gay or bisexual men and most others are women who have been tested for HIV during pregnancy. Recently a monthly women’s group with a creche was set up.
Andrew said: “Whereas all the rooms would have been filled with people dying, now they’re filled with people coping with living with HIV. It is quite challenging in that it has to be very adaptive. The care is more complex now than it’s ever been.”
Service users might also be living with mental health, drug or alcohol issues. HIV exacerbates the effects of growing older, with higher risks of osteoporosis and heart disease. Sadly, infection rates locally and nationally continue to rise. In Brighton, the rate of new diagnoses is double the national average, possibly caused by a combination of increasing infections, more testing and people moving to Brighton because of high quality services.
Andrew worries there is increasing complacency surrounding HIV: “Medication does provide for a better quality of life but people don’t understand the ongoing health risks and side effects.”
Side effects of anti-retro viral medication can include nerve damage, risk of heart disease and renal failure. Patients have to stick very closely to their regime, sometimes taking more than a dozen pills a day.
Jackie Titley, the Beacon’s head of health management services, said: “It is hard work learning to live with HIV.”
Sussex Beacon is preparing for its Brighton half marathon, due to take place on Sunday, 22 February. The event needs 200 volunteers. Email cath.mattos@sussexbeacon.org.uk or call 01273 694222. The Beacon is also looking for a trustee with business or marketing experience and has World Aids Day raffle tickets for sale.
