WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
We’re missing a lot of men across the HIV cascade
There are about 2 million South African men living with HIV who are not on treatment.
We’ve misread the reasons we’re losing them
The common belief is that men are stubborn and indifferent, that they don’t care about their health enough to take action.
Through extensive qualitative and quantitative research with men, we learned that this assumption is untrue.
Far from being apathetic, men expressed deep and paralysing fears about HIV. Those fears can keep men from testing and from starting and staying on treatment.
For more on men’s fears, click here.
“I didn’t hear a word that person in the clinic was saying to me. From the moment I heard I was positive, I didn’t hear a word they said. I didn’t know what I could do, I didn’t tell anybody, I felt like someone punched me and I was like that for weeks.”
Clinics are not giving them the support they need to overcome their fears
Many men go into shock on receiving an HIV diagnosis and have no one to help them through that.
They often perceive nurses as intimidating, sometimes even unfriendly and judgmental, and even empathetic nurses simply do not have the time that is needed to help a man work through his diagnosis.
Linkage officers and tracker-tracers are often viewed as coercive and unhelpful, focused narrowly on getting a man back to the clinic rather than resolving underlying barriers.
Many men also fear that confiding in a partner, family member or friend will end in shame and rejection.
They need someone they can relate to and trust for empathetic advice and support in navigating what feels like a very difficult journey.
