HIV testing and counseling

Recently a Timor-Leste army (F-FDTL) medical team, accompanied by senior officers responsible for operations and human resources, visited Jakarta to learn about Indonesia’s experience with HIV prevention, treatment and care in its military. The delegation visited local NGOs, Angsa Merah and Karisma, to see ‘best practice’ HIV testing and counseling, including how to inform clients about a positive test result. Angsa Merah also shared their case management system, including handling of confidential patient information. While visiting CWS colleagues, an Indonesian army officer presented the Gatot Subroto Military Hospital’s HIV prevention, treatment and care program, which serves all army referrals and the community, including commercial sex workers and injecting drug users for whom the hospital has an outreach program. The F-FDTL team also visited the US NGO FHI 360 to learn about its capacity-building programs – especially information-education-communication (IEC) materials development and monitoring and evaluation tools and methods. At their visit’s end the Timor-Leste team identified next steps to take: secure the army Chief of Staff’s official decree to formalize an HIV Working Group from an informal CWS-initiated group; identify new funding sources in the F-FDTL budget or from donors to continue HIV-AIDS and related outreach and care once US Department of Defense funding through CWS ends; offer more opportunities to F-FDTL doctors for hands-on ‘bedside’ learning, and strengthen the F-FDTL monitoring and evaluation systems for these initiatives.