New Start takes HIV counselling and testing into homes

SA - the Good News, 5 October 2012

New Start HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) , one of South Africa's leading HIV prevention programmes, has launched a new Home-Based HIV Counselling and Testing service that will allow residents of Mpumalanga and Free State provinces to be counselled and tested for HIV in the privacy of their homes.

The home-based HCT initiative seeks to encourage better family support in decisions to get tested for HIV and to facilitate disclosure among family members and couples when they receive their results, whether they are positive or negative.

"We have realised that for various reasons not everyone is able to travel to an HIV Counselling and Testing facility, be it at a clinic or one of our mobile units when they are in their area," said Ncamsile Nhlabathi, Senior HCT Manager at Society for Family Health, which manages the New Start programme.

"Our aim is also to encourage people who test for HIV to take advantage of the family support structure and disclose their status to their family members, whether they test positive or negative for HIV," Ms Nhlabathi said.

While clients are encouraged to disclose their results to their family members, the process is still confidential, and members are tested individually or as a couple. "It is still a private process, and although the information giving part of the process may be carried out with the whole family together, there is still individual or couple counselling and the actual testing and issuing of results is also done individually or as a couple. It is then up to the client/s to decide whether or not to share their results with their family," Ms Nhlabathi added.

In addition to counselling and testing, clients also receive CD4 count testing services if they test positive for HIV. They can also have their sputum collected and sent for laboratory testing for Tuberculosis if they are believed to be at risk.

The entire package of services is provided by trained New Start counsellors free of charge. New Start home-based HCT services are currently only available in Witbank, Welkom and Bloemfontein.

New Start has provided HCT services to more than 800,000 people since opening its doors in South Africa in 2004. The services are provided by mobile teams that visit shopping malls, taxi ranks, community centres, colleges, corporate firms and now homes to provide HCT services that ensure that South Africans are aware of their HIV status and able to make positive health choices.

New Start is South Africa's largest HIV counselling and testing (HCT) programme. It is a network that brings SFH and other local NGOs together to provide high quality HIV Counselling and Testing services. New Start is funded by the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria through the National Department of Health and the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).