Meet the Health Promotion team at Harm Reduction Victoria
Our Hep Heroes spotlight features the Health Promotion team at Harm Reduction Victoria (HRVic): Jane, Caro, Brit, Lesa, and Mark. Between them, they bring decades of harm reduction experience and a peer approach rooted in their own community of people who use drugs.
As a peer-led organisation, everything HRVic does puts the concerns of people who use drugs first, with the goal of helping them stay healthy, meet their needs and take part fully in community life. At the heart of its work is a simple belief: drug-related harm is a health issue, not a criminal one.
The team has been part of the Australian Hep C Point of Care Testing program for a couple of years. In their words, they were slow to get started, so they have really only been testing for less than 12 months. In that time, they have built a service that takes testing straight to the people who need it.
Taking testing to the community
Most of the team's testing happens off-site as Caro puts it, "We can pop the POC machine in the C No More van and take it on outreach. Which is amazing!" They host pop-up testing clinics at a range of different places, usually staying for a couple of consecutive days. Depending on demand, they go back as many times as they are needed.
Across the team, one theme comes up again and again: no venous blood draw. Lesa explains that many of the people they work with can be sceptical about blood tests, and their veins are often hard to access. "Then they see how little an amount of blood we actually need to take, and it's usually then that they are pretty stoked for the test." Mark is just as clear: "I know that if we did venipuncture our testing numbers would be really low."
Speed matters too. Jane says removing the venous draw and the long wait for results "makes the process virtually stress-free." Caro adds that being able to offer incentives has made engagement easier, and that once someone is diagnosed, "the treatment part is easy!"
For Brit, the biggest change is relief. "For many people it has meant relief, finally knowing whether they have hep C or not, as they haven't been tested in a long time. Other times the relief comes when they realise it's just a finger prick."
The people behind the service
Jane Dicka, Health Promotion Team Coordinator
Jane has coordinated the Health Promotion team for about eight years, and has worked full time at HRVic for 21. "Was there life before HRVic?" she asks. Before joining, she worked in night-time mobile needle and syringe programs (NSPs), conducted interviews for the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS), and did foot patrol in the Melbourne CBD and Springvale. In another life, she was a spare parts delivery person.
What keeps her here is her colleagues, or as she calls them, "my family". "There aren't many opportunities to work in a true peer role, and the fact that I get to come to work every day and work alongside like-minded people and be able to be myself and not have to hide any part of me is priceless."
If Jane could make one problem disappear, top of her list would be the War on Drugs, or the stigma attached to drug use. Her hero? She has too many to mention, "so let's just say Wonder Woman."
Caro Weidner, Health Promotion Officer
Caro has been a Health Promotion Officer at HRVic for about seven years. Before that, she spent the first 12 months at the Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR) after it opened, and 15 years at cohealth Innerspace.
Caro stays for "love for my community (of people who use drugs) and the determination to keep trying to change stigmatising attitudes and structures, and the hearts and minds of society at large, about how our people are seen and treated."
Apart from a world free of viral hepatitis, Caro would magically redistribute the world's wealth so that everybody had some. "There is enough on this planet that we can ALL benefit from the offerings of the universe." She doesn't really worship heroes, but when she thought about the question, Julian Assange kept coming to mind for what he sacrificed in the name of free speech.
Brit Chapman, Health Promotion Peer Worker
Brit's contract says "Health Promotion Officer Workforce Focus", but she usually just says Health Promotion Peer Worker. She has been at HRVic for a bit over four years. Before that, she worked two jobs: with Barwon Health's Harm Reduction Team in Geelong, mostly in the NSP but also delivering training, outreach and other projects, and on the floor at The Living Room.
Brit loves that the work is meaningful and varied, but what really keeps her is her HRVic family. "It's really amazing having the opportunity to work with a bunch of people who are so passionate about what they do, are motivated and driven, who are so generous with sharing their knowledge and who really care about each other." Being able to be herself at work is, in her words, "like, incredible".
The problem Brit would make vanish: introduced species that destroy native environments. Her heroes are women a bit older than her "who are fierce and independent and support themselves, who unapologetically defy gender norms and are leaders amongst their peers and in their communities."
Lesa Ryan, Peer Worker
Lesa has been a peer worker on the Health Promotion team for about two years. Before HRVic, she worked in a fast-food management role while completing her Certificate IV in Alcohol and Other Drugs. Before that, she was homeless for about five to six years. It was during those years that she discovered HRVic, saw what it stood for and met the people, and decided she wanted, and needed, to be part of it.
What keeps Lesa here is seeing the relief on clients' faces when they realise testing is offered completely free of stigma and discrimination, and hearing them say they feel "seen and heard". Even if she never sees someone again, she knows that is "at least one less thing that that person has to be up against when accessing any other services."
Lesa would like to rid the world of incurable diseases, and of the stigma around mental illness that leaves people feeling they can't turn to anyone for help. Her heroes include the researchers who brought us DAAs, but also the people they test and treat, "for their bravery in coming forward" despite the stigma that has plagued them "for far FAR too long already." She calls point-of-care testing "without a doubt the greatest thing to happen to hepatitis C testing in a long time."
Mark Belzer, Peer Worker, C No More van
Mark is a peer at HRVic who works on the C No More van, and has been in the role for just over three years. Before that, he was long-term unemployed for 30 years, apart from a short stint in a graffiti supplies store.
Mark is driven by his passion for the job and for helping people with hep C treatment. He also values the chance to travel and speak at conferences.
If Mark could make one thing go away, it would be the criminalisation of drugs, so that people could access a safe supply free from cutting agents and fentanyl. His hero is whoever invented the point-of-care machine: "What a game changer. Same-day results, no venipuncture, just a simple finger prick."
Advice for services starting out
When asked what they wish they had known at the start, the team's answer is patience. Not everyone wants treatment as soon as they find out they are positive. It may take some time before a person decides to get treated, "so just be willing to be there for them when they make that decision."
Their practical advice for anyone starting POCT:
- Have processes in place so people who return a positive result can get a script.
- Remove as many barriers as you can.
- Don't assume someone will take their medication just because they have it. Some people will need regular reminders to take their pills.
And finally: "Get ready to meet some of the most interesting, entertaining, funny, compassionate and appreciative people that you will ever have the pleasure of knowing."