HIV & faith resources for healthcare professionals
We provide resources & support for healthcare workers who wish to engage with the faith community and help improve health outcomes for their service users.
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Why does this resource exist?
70% of all people living with HIV in the UK say they are religious or spiritual, of whom 49% say that their religion is fairly or very important to them. Of all people living with HIV 52% identify as Christian.
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Who can use this resource?
We suggest that anyone who works or volunteers in the healthcare sector and who is in frequent contact with people living with HIV use this resource. If you are communicating with churches and are looking for specific material to share with them, please see our HIV Resources for Church & Community page.
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How can this resource be used?
The material on offer in this anthology is varied. From videos that help explain why faith shouldn't be overlooked when trying to improve health outcomes, to guidance for workshops, this resource can be used in training sessions and for individual professional development.
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Why use this resource?
These videos and documents help us to understand people of faith better, and as a result, enable healthcare professionals to make better decisions and ultimately improve health outcomes for people living with HIV.
The story of a patient whose pastor told her ‘Don’t take your medication’
We received a call for help from an HIV nurse at a clinic in the Midlands. She had a challenge because she did not know quite how to help her patient ‘Sara’ who was refusing to take her medication. Sara was adamant, that following the instructions of her Pastor, she need not take the ARVs because her faith would ensure that God would cure her. We were able to communicate with the nurse, and direct her to our Positive Faith videos and particularly to the two films that address the matters of faith healing and the importance of taking the medication, specifically.
In this way the nurse was able to sit with Sara, and hopefully, she will have realised that taking her medication is a way to receive God’s gift of healing and strengthening in her life. Although the nurse may not have been able to counteract the false authority of Sara’s Pastor on her own, we trust that listening to other people with faith explain why the medicine is God’s gift to us will have helped her take an important step towards her physical recovery from HIV infection. This is one of the exact applications – namely supporting clinical staff in their roles of nursing and medical care - that we had in mind for our Positive Faith resource. Thanks be to God!
