The Antiretroviral Treatment Community Education and Referral (ACER)
The Antiretroviral Treatment Community Education and Referral (ACER)
The ACER project links existing community organisations and support networks – traditional healers, home carers, positive people’s groups and church groups – with government health services. The project employs people openly living with HIV to promote uptake of treatment, to support treatment adherence and to promote prevention efforts in community and clinic settings.
A key feature of the project is the two-way referral system between community support services and health care providers, developed around the concept of a treatment journey. This referral system was developed by ACER partners in participatory processes, following their training on ARV treatment and HIV prevention. Involving communities enabled the project to address gaps in the care and support of people living with HIV. Developing a referral system recognised by and appropriate for the community has resulted in excellent cooperation between traditional healers, positive people’s networks, home-based care providers, health care workers and other community support providers, as they now have better knowledge of each other’s services.
People living with HIV have been very directly involved at all stages of the design and implementation of ACER. The positive people's support group system has been used by all organisations within ACER, enabling people to share information and personal experiences as part of the process of supporting one another. The support groups are an important strategy in promoting adherence through sharing and encouragement among positve people, in addition to providing them with a collective voice.
In the initial stages of the project, working in two communities with 90,000 people, ACER partners referred over 500 people, of which 260 started ARV treatment. They also provided treatment literacy education to the community that has led to reduced stigma among people on treatment, their families and communities.
The ACER project’s community referral system has maximised community resources, has shortened and facilitated the treatment journey, and provides continuity of HIV and ART support within the community.
