Mobilisation, politics, investment and constant adaptation: lessons from the Australian health-promotion response to HIV
Graham Brown A B C H , Daryl O’Donnell D E , Levinia Crooks A F and Rob Lake GA Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, 215 Franklin Street, Melbourne, Vic. 3000, Australia.
B Western Australian Centre for Health Promotion Research, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia.
C Centre for Social Research in Health, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
D Mental Health Commission of NSW, Locked Bag 5013, Gladesville, NSW 1675, Australia.
E Formerly of: Centre for Population Health, NSW Ministry of Health, Locked Mail Bag 961, North Sydney, NSW 2059, Australia.
F Australian Society for HIV Medicine, Locked Mail Bag 5057, Darlinghurst, NSW 1300, Australia.
G Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations, Level 1, 222 King Street, Newtown, NSW 2042, Australia.
H Corresponding author. Email: graham.brown@latrobe.edu.au
Health Promotion Journal of Australia 25(1) 35-41 https://doi.org/10.1071/HE13078
Submitted: 20 September 2013 Accepted: 13 December 2013 Published: 16 April 2014
Abstract
Issue addressed: The Australian response to HIV oversaw one of the most rapid and sustained changes in community behaviour in Australia’s health-promotion history. The combined action of communities of gay men, sex workers, people who inject drugs, people living with HIV and clinicians working in partnership with government, public health and research has been recognised for many years as highly successful in minimising the HIV epidemic.
Methods: This article will show how the Australian HIV partnership response moved from a crisis response to a constant and continuously adapting response, with challenges in sustaining the partnership. Drawing on key themes, lessons for broader health promotion are identified.
Results: The Australian HIV response has shown that a partnership that is engaged, politically active, adaptive and resourced to work across multiple social, structural, behavioural and health-service levels can reduce the transmission and impact of HIV.
Conclusions: The experience of the response to HIV, including its successes and failures, has lessons applicable across health promotion. This includes the need to harness community mobilisation and action; sustain participation, investment and leadership across the partnership; commit to social, political and structural approaches; and build and use evidence from multiple sources to continuously adapt and evolve.
So what?: The Australian HIV response was one of the first health issues to have the Ottawa Charter embedded from the beginning, and has many lessons to offer broader health promotion and common challenges. As a profession and a movement, health promotion needs to engage with the interactions and synergies across the promotion of health, learn from our evidence, and resist the siloing of our responses.
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