Positive Health, Dignity, and Prevention: Training Modules for Promoting Leadership Among Persons Living with HIV

The curriculum modules contained in this document are intended to enhance the understanding and skills of communities living with HIV in Positive Health, Dignity, and Prevention (PHDP) in Jamaica. PHDP is a global policy framework authored in 2011 by the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GIPA) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) that advances a holistic framework for people living with HIV to manage their health, advocate for high-quality HIV services, and prevent onward HIV transmission. PHDP also provides a concrete framework for meeting global and national care and treatment goals for HIV and to making "combination prevention" a reality.

Working with the Jamaican Network of Seropositives and Jamaican Ministry of Health's National HIV/STI Program, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)- and President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-funded Health Policy Project (HPP) helped create this capacity-building curriculum led by people living with HIV (PLHIV). The Jamaican curriculum provides a set of resources (combining structure and flexibility) that allow HIV affected people to adapt PHDP to specific communities and stakeholders. The 15 modules focus on:

1. Module 1: HIV and AIDS Basics
2. The Framework of Positive Health, Dignity, and Prevention (PHDP)
3. Stigma & Discrimination
4. Sexual & Reproductive Rights
5. Gender
6. Sexuality
7. Sexual Diversity
8. Disclosure Issues
9. Positive Health & Health Promotion
10. Loss and Grief
11. Continuum of Care
12. Advocacy
13. Combination Prevention
14. Self-Care
15. Treatment Literacy

Each module includes time for reflection on the key messages that were communicated and a worksheet that helps participants think about and plan how they would put what they learned into action.

The modules are part of a larger capacity-building curriculum developed and implemented by persons living with HIV through the Jamaican Network of Seropositives (JN+) under the guidance of the GIPA Unit of the Government of Jamaica Ministry of Health's National HIV/STI Programme, with technical assistance from the HPP. As part of their joint effort to implement capacity building for community leaders and facilitate their active and more meaningful participation in the national response to HIV, the GIPA Unit and JN+ led a participatory assessment and curriculum development process to identify priority areas for PHDP in Jamaica. From the community, two cohorts of more than 60 PLHIV worked with partners to develop and pilot the curriculum in a participatory manner. The GIPA Unit will use this curriculum to strengthen the capacity of PLHIV leaders to advance the framework of PHDP in Jamaica's HIV response, which coheres with its mission to build the literacy, communication, and leadership skills of community leaders living with HIV so they can recognise, advocate, and claim the rights of PLHIV.

The primary audience for these modules is leaders from the communities of PLHIV in Jamaica. This leadership can range from serving as resource people in workplace settings to working and/or advocating with healthcare centres, community-level support groups, peers, and family members. While the content of these modules reflects the Jamaican context, they may be adapted to other settings.