Positive Life NSW

This is an archived copy of a Positive Life NSW newsletter. To subscribe to our newsletters, click here.

From the editor

Hello and welcome to the June issue of Life.mail. It's been an unusually early and cold winter so far – I hope everyone's managing to stay warm and not feel too gloomy. We've just passed the winter solstice so daylight hours will increase from now on!

You should have received your copy of Talkabout a few weeks ago – remember that you can now access the entire magazine online, either in page-turning or PDF format, at http://positivelife.org.au/talkabout-gets-animated. Thanks for the positive feedback about the new look. I'm still happy to receive your contributions for the next edition, especially for the Everyday Life section. This time it will be about siblings – come on, most of you have siblings, so write and tell me how you get on with them and what role they play in your life (if any). An email-sized contribution will do. Send it to Susan at editor@positivelife.org.au by next week.

Anwernekenhe 5

Positive Life NSW is offering scholarships for attendance at Anwernekenhe 5, the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community conference on HIV/AIDS and sexual health, to be held in Cairns, August 8-11. The conference program will feature a range of peer education skills-building workshops, as well as exploring the HIV and sexual health issues that uniquely impact on young people and seniors, current successes and challenges in HIV health promotion, emerging issues in relation to injecting drug use, strategies to address stigma and discrimination and the issue of vulnerabilities to HIV caused by sub-optimal sexual health.

Who should apply:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living with and affected by HIV
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander gay men, sistergirls/transgenders and lesbians
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth and seniors
• HIV/AIDS and sexual health workers
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders (Anwernekenhe 5 has a focus on increasing our elders' participation).

Please let us know if you're interested in attending the conference. Email harryr@positivelife.org.au or call 9361 6011 or freecall (outside of Sydney) 1800 245 677. For more information, visit www.ana.org.au

DNA wants you

DNA, Australia's biggest-selling gay magazine, is looking to speak to men living with HIV as part of a feature they're planning. This is what they say:

For much of the gay community, particularly those who are younger, HIV has become a very abstract threat. Many don't even know anybody with the virus – or at least they're unaware that they do. We'd like to shine a light on those living with HIV to give our readers some idea of what it's like in this day and age. Ideally we'd like to speak to three different types of people: a young guy who has only recently become positive; a couple who have both been living it for a number of years; and a serodiscordant couple. Those don't have to be rigid specifications. Essentially we're just looking for the greatest variety of people we can find to give a broad idea of the spectrum of experiences people are going through. We'd prefer to speak to those who are willing to be named and photographed, but if you'd rather remain anonymous we can do that also.

If you're interested, email Nick Cook at features@dnamagazine.com.au

Disability pension change?

"Welfare groups fear people with multiple minor disabilities may be less likely to get the disability pension under a new set of impairment tables at the centre of reforms aimed at getting people off welfare" from The Australian, June 8: http://tinyurl.com/4xad8ud

Positive Life, NAPWA, AFAO and Welfare Rights NSW will be meeting with representatives of the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) on July 1, hoping to get more information on the introduction of the changes flagged in the May 2011 Federal Budget speech and the new set of Impairment Tables. Contact lancef@positivelife.org.au for more information.

On the move?

At the PL offices, we often get phone queries from people hoping to travel overseas but unsure what to do about medications while they're on the move. We usually refer them to the Global Database on HIV-Specific Travel at http://www.hivtravel.org/. But we'd like to hear directly from those of you who have recent experience travelling while taking anti-HIV drugs – what worked for you? What strategies did you use to ensure smooth sailing (or flying)? Which countries did you visit – which were friendliest, which were difficult? Give me a call on 9361 6011 or send me an email with your thoughts: editor@positivelife.org.au

729 monthly meeting

The next 729 is next Thursday June 30, at Twenty10 (45 Bedford Street, Newtown). Get there at 6.45pm for a 7pm start. On the menu: Love & Other Pursuits (a warm discussion about the good things in life). This chat follows the previous discussions on the intimate things we hardly ever share. To rsvp, call Hedimo on 9361 6011 or email: hedimos@positivelife.org.au

July Genesis

Know anyone who's recently seroconverted? Let them know about the next Genesis workshop, for gay men who are recently positive, from Friday 15 to Sunday 17 July at ACON in its new premises, 414 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills. Contact hivliving@acon.org.au or call 9699 8756.

Phoenix events

Looking ahead to August (which will be here before we know it), Phoenix has two workshops worth considering: Phoenix Directions is a series of five workshops for people living with HIV who are considering a positive life change, a return to work or study or alternatives to paid work such as volunteering. this will be on Thursdays, from August 11 to September 8. Contact Kit Ayers at BGF 02 9283 8666 or freecall 1800 651 011.

PozQuest Workshops have been run in partnership with Petrea King’s Quest for Life Foundation since 2008 and have been highly successful. The next workshop runs from August 29 to September 2 at Bundanoon, just south of Sydney. (Looking even further ahead, PozQuest Women is on in November.) Contact Peter Thoms at BGF on 9283 8666 or freecall 1800 651 011.

Positive Life SGM

A successful special general meeting was held at the Y in Sydney on Thursday June 23 and the new draft constitution was adopted unanimously.

South Coast NSW

If you're in the Shoalhaven or Illawarra districts, there's a new HIV-related directory compiled by the area health service which I can easily forward on to you if you drop me an email: editor@positivelife.org.au

Briefs from the Web

The Internet is abundantly full of information about HIV and it can be hard sifting through it all. One site that's consistently interesting is CATIE, the Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange at http://www.catie.ca/eng/home.shtml.

They recently carried an article on the "epidemic of sexually transmitted HCV occurring across high-income countries among some gay and bisexual men, particularly those who are HIV positive and who do not inject illicit substances." Read more at http://tinyurl.com/6exngqc

'A Cup of Hope' is a short (American) film on YouTube which explores the challenges faced by a woman contemplating disclosing her positive status in a new relationship.

Check it out and let me know what you think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_GFMdkZHzU