Course Summary:

This course has been developed to meet the needs of business and government organisations who desire to respond with compassion and understanding to HIV and AIDS challenges encountered in the workplace.  The aim of the course is to provide managers with a deeper knowledge of HIV and AIDS, as well as the skills to manage the impacts of this dreaded disease.  Participants will look at the personal impacts on employees as well as on organizational areas such as finance, policy and procedures, business climate, roles and responsibilities, human resource adjustments and programmes.  Participants will gain insight into the care continuum of HIV positive people, prevention strategies, the rights of the employee and employer, workplace HIV/AIDS critical issues, as well as best practice in HIV/AIDS management.  The training will be based on adult educational principles and is highly interactive. We use workbooks that include case studies, simulations, group activities and individual questionnaires.  The course content covers the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for effective HIV/AIDS workplace management

Course Objectives:

• Assess the extent of their existing knowledge and experience of HIV/AIDS and dread diseases
• Understand what HIV/AIDS is and what causes it
• Understand what HIV/AIDS is and where it comes from
• Explain how infection takes place and the progression of the disease
• Appreciate the impact of HIV/AIDS on the individual, the family, the workplace, and community
• Be familiar with rights of employee and employer related to HIV/AIDS
• Conduct an impact analysis for your unit/ department  Identify workplace  implementation strategies for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment
• Be able to deal with the fear and stigma of HIV/AIDS  How to develop attitudes and values conducive to creating a positive environment
• Develop attitudes and values conducive to creating a supportive environment
• Understand how to counsel people affected by HIV/AIDS.
• Develop a workplace policy and programme to minimise the negative impact of HIV/AIDS  Identify dread diseases and their impact on your team/business unit
• Promote a non-discriminatory work environment and practices in relation to dread diseases
• Assess the extent of their existing knowledge and experience of HIV & AIDS

Course Outline

Assessing and deepening your knowledge of HIV/AIDS 

• Questionnaire to assess your current understanding of the HIV/AIDS pandemic
• A brief history of HIV and AIDS
• HIV/AIDS and the immune system
• The stages of HIV
• Knowledge is power / prevention
• The Gender dimension of HIV/AIDS

Counselling, Testing and Treatment 

• What and why of Voluntary Counselling and Testing
• Workplace voluntary counselling and testing
• Principles of counselling
• Testing for HIV/AIDS
• Human responses to HIV infection and the grief cycle
• What are anti-retroviral drugs and how do they work
• Treatment for opportunistic infections

Promoting a non-discriminatory work environment  

• Managing issues in the workplace – privacy, confidentiality, types of unfair discrimination
• Stigma
• Measures for countering discrimination in the workplace
• Formulating a workplace response to HIV/AIDS
• Principles to guide a workplace response to HIV/AIDS
• Rights of people living with HIV
• Rights of employees

Preparing to deal with the effects of HIV/AIDS in your unit 

• Scope and areas of impact – structure of unit, historical overview of unit or department, role and job changes
• policies and procedures, finance, human resources, business culture, communication and training
• Formulating a report
• Developing an action plan with recommendations
• Schedule, budget and monitoring and evaluation tools

Workplace HIV/AIDS Policy and Programmes 

• The main elements of an effective workplace policy
• Managing workloads of effected people
• Criteria for assessing when employees are too ill to work
• Dealing with employees who refuse to work with HIV infected colleagues
• Basic principles of employee benefits
• Programme issues in the HIV/AIDS Workplace policy
• Checklist for a successful HIV/AIDS Programme

Dreaded diseases in the work place 

• Defining dreaded diseases
• TB – its nature and transmission and assumptions, fears and prejudices around the disease
• Cancer – Its nature, transmission and assumptions, fears and prejudices around the disease
• HIV/AIDS – its nature and transmission and assumptions, fears and prejudices surrounding the disease
• Your experience of dreaded diseases