Management of HIV/AIDS in the workplace

• 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

Management of HIV/AIDS in the workplace

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