Our Needs
Met and unmet needs of people living with HIV
A common theme running through these stories is that the needs of people living with HIV are complex, change over time and go beyond the day-to-day management of HIV. When these needs are unmet it is often due to obstacles to accessing services, difficulty navigating health and benefit systems, or lack of awareness that a service even exists.
The Positive Voices survey revealed significant levels of unmet need among people living with HIV in England and Wales, particularly for social care, support services and certain health services.
However, survey responses also painted a positive picture. In the past year, 4 in 5 people needed an HIV-related service, such as HIV treatment advice, adherence support, or peer support. In 80% of cases, respondents said that these needs had been met. This suggests that the majority of people with HIV can find the information and support they need from HIV clinics, HIV charities and voluntary organisations, or other places such as the internet.
The survey found extremely high levels of satisfaction with HIV clinical services, with participants rating their HIV clinic on average 9.3 out of 10. Over 95% of people reported feeling involved in decisions about their HIV care and enabled to self-manage their HIV.
In contrast, a similar proportion of respondents (77%) reported other health needs not related to HIV, and only half of people with other health needs had these met. Discouragingly, nearly half (46%) of people had a social and welfare need, and two-thirds (62%) of these needs were unmet.
Each need represents a personal concern or crisis that can have many possible causes. Some needs may be resolved by a simple intervention, while some may require ongoing support and may never be fully resolved. However, the impact of an unmet need can have serious consequences on our emotional and physical well-being, and ability to cope with daily life. In this section, we explore some of the key themes around ‘need’ that emerged from the stories and data.
Percentage of need and unmet need for services
HIV related services
Health services
Social and welfare services
What do we mean by unmet need?
The Positive Voices survey asked people whether they used specific services (29 in total) in the past year, and whether they received that service. The services were split into three categories: HIV-related services (6), health-related services (11), and social and welfare service (12). People who had a specific need for which they could not get help or felt not able to ask for help were said to have an unmet need.
Talking about HIV and our needs report
To view the Changing Perceptions report regarding HIV and our needs please click on the Download below.
