Shifting Priorities: The Response of the BC Persons with AIDS Society to Priorities for Action in Managing the Epidemics HIV/AIDS in BC: 2003-2007 (Workshop Draft - March 2003)

Shifting Priorities: The Response of the BC Persons with AIDS Society to Priorities for Action in Managing the Epidemics HIV/AIDS in BC: 2003-2007 (Workshop Draft - March 2003) [a copy of which can be found at http://www.bcpwa.org/articles/priorities_draft.pdf ] Representatives of the Society attended the Priorities workshops hosted by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority on April 4th, 2003, the Provincial Health Services Authority on April 7th, 2003, and the Fraser Health Authority on April 15th, 2003. While the Society finds much in the workshop draft to be praiseworthy and deserving of swift implementation and the overall goals to be commendably clear, to the point and bold, there are three substantial areas of policy and implementation that the document fails to deal with in any meaningful way: the role of HIV positive people in prevention efforts ("Positive Prevention"), the role of the HIV/AIDS community in determining, effecting and monitoring large portions of the battle against the epidemic, and the need for substantially increased funding if the goals set out in Priorities are to be at all attainable. This response by the BCPWA details the Society's criticisms of the treatment of these areas in the Priorities document with relevant historical, policy and academic information and offers suggestion to strengthen the response to the epidemic in BC.