Goals

Foster positive development of people infected, affected by and/or concerned with the problem of HIV/AIDS.

Specific goals

• Promote health education, the adoption of wholesome behaviors and in terms of self-care;

• Reduce the impact of an HIV/AIDS diagnosis on the individual/family;

• Support and guide the construction of an alternative life project based on more effective family roles, routines and rules;

• Foster the development of personal, vocational and social skills;

• Provide an information space for giving out materials on HIV/AIDS;

• Lend support in residual individual/ family situations requiring assistance in terms of shower room, laundry room, cafeteria, foodstuffs/clothing and furniture;

• Develop training initiatives geared to corporate boards/technical and non-technical employees of local bodies;

• Collaborate with educational, health, or other institutions requesting CAPS intervention as part of health and HIV prevention education;

• Fight to defend the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS;

• Promote early detection of HIV and hepatitis infection within the community.

Intervention

Bearing in mind the attaining of the set goals, the CAPS provides:

• Psychological Monitoring

• Social Support

• Legal Aid

• Logistical in cases of financial difficulty

• Training

• The fostering of health and social reintegration

• Preventing HIV infection within the community

• Quick, free-of-charge and confidential HIV and hepatitis testing within community settings

Every year, the CAPS marks the following:

• World AIDS Day (December 1st), through initiatives aimed at raising community awareness to adopting wholesome lifestyle habits and sexual behaviors, as well as to early HIV detection.

• European early HIV and hepatitis detection week (last week in November) – conducts free-of-charge, confidential community screening in collaboration with the Projeto Adições street team

• World Sexual Health Day (September 4th) – fosters a photo contest entitled, “Directly from the Heart. Your love, Your life,” combined with an awareness-raising initiative in partnership with hotel units in the district.

• World Hepatitis Day (July 28th) – conducts confidential, free-of-charge community screening, in collaboration with the Projeto Adições street team

• December 17th – Marks the Day for Ending Violence against Sex Workers

Project currently being developed:

• Training Initiative entitled “HIV and AIDS Infection: Life takes on a whole new meaning” Geared to experts and non-experts from the district’s institutions, in order to foster co-responsibility of the latter with promoting health, with social reintegration and with providing services to the districts residents who are infected with HIV, thereby contributing toward minimizing the sense of discrimination and the stigma.

• Projeto Para além das grades: Promoção da saúde no estabelecimento prisional de Viana do Castelo
Visa promover a saúde em contexto prisional contribuindo para minimizar a incidência negativa do VIH/SIDA, outras IST e tuberculose, bem como o incremento do bem estar biopsicossocial na população reclusa e dos guardas prisionais no EP de Viana do Castelo.

• The Cotton Candy Project
Education regarding affections and sexuality in preschool, involving kindergarten teachers, parents, and children ages 4-5. For further information, visit www.gaf.pt/projetos/algodaodoce. www.gaf.pt/en/projects/algodaodoce

• The Voices Project
The Frei Bartolomeu dos Mártires School Grouping, in partnership with the UAT, will be developing the project geared to 7th-grade classes and extending over three consecutive years. Its primary goal will be to provide health education through art in a school context.

• National Screening Network

Completed projects:

• Mission S
Sex education through art in secondary school – implemented from 2011 to 2013 at the Pintor José de Brito School

• It’s cool to be a boy
Implemented at the Casa dos Rapazes (“Boys’ House”), in 2012 – training to experts and monitors, as well as intervention with young people in order to address sexuality and abusive approaches

Films produced:

• “Sorrir para a Vida” (Smile at Life)
To mark World AIDS Day, in 2014, the CAPS, in partnership with Filipa Valente, have produced the film, which reflects the need of HIV and Aids sufferers who are part of the GAF’s mutual aid group to raise community awareness to the strength they currently possess so as to fight against the persisting stigma against them, which derives from the unity created at the meeting sessions!

• Colors of Exclusion
Produced in 2014 by Filipa Valente for the final project for her technical course in Communication, Marketing, Public Relations and Advertising at the ETAP in Vila Nova de Cerveira. This comprised a partnership involving the CAPS, the UAT, the Additions Project and the Integration Community

• “DeSida” (a play on the word “decide,” using “Sida,” the Portuguese word for Aids)
In 2009, as part of the PRO-RI - Promoting and Reintegrating Project, Reintegration PRI of the CRI of Viana do Castelo, funded by the IDT, and the Psychosocial Care Center for people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS (CAPS HIV/AIDS), a request was made for collaboration from the AO-NORTE Association in producing a documentary entitled “DeSida,” which deals with direct discourses from HIV/AIDS sufferers living in the district of Viana do Castelo, regarding life constraints associated with being HIV positive and/or having Aids.

Equipa

• 1 Senior Social Service Officer

• 1 Psychologist