Healthy Gay Life
Healthy Gay Life is a service that works with gay men, bisexual men and men who have sex with men to promote their sexual, mental and social health & wellbeing.
Services are free and confidential and available regardless of age, ethnic origins or HIV status (positive, negative or untested)to men living in Birmingham and Sandwell.
Healthy Gay Life takes to heart the values of Making it Count in that we aim to enable the men (and women) that we serve to have the most fulfilling and safest sexual life and enhance their emotional wellbeing. We aim to support people in making healthier choices whilst helping them understand the potential outcomes of their choices based on the most up to date evidence that we can provide.
We aim to do this through the provision of evidenced based services, partnership working and a programme of continuous evaluation of our service.
By these means we aim to reduce the incidence of HIV and other STIs as well as enhance the social and emotional health in our community to encourage engagement and participation and reduce marginalisation associated with being LGBT and/or being affected by HIV.
Values
Autonomy - Healthy Gay Life values the independence of the people accessing our services and aims to help them make their own choices regarding their health and life options.
Trustworthy – as an NHS organisation, based in an established city wide integrated sexual health directorate in a Teaching PCT we bring our combined experience to benefit our users.
Difference – As a pan Birmingham (and Sandwell) service we recognise that our potential service users come from a huge variety of different cultures, races and socio-economic backgrounds. We value these differences and aim to provide a wide range of services to address their diverse needs.
Engagement – We endeavour to shape our services to meet the needs of our community. To this end we engage in public consultations, focus groups and other service evaluations to establish how well our services are meeting the expressed needs.
Services
Condoms & Lubricant, free in gay venues in Birmingham or from our Drop In. These may also be ordered online or by telephone for postal delivery.
Training to individuals and organisations, to enhance personal autonomy, efficacy and self esteem. Improve levels of service provision to LGBT individuals by other service providers/organisations.
Counselling & Psychotherapy Service, this service is open to both men and women as part of our commitment to the psychological health of our community. Free and confidential in a variety of settings with a choice of male and female counsellors. We also offer counselling and psychotherapy within University Hospital Birmingham HIV Treatment Centre.
Advice & information, by telephone, email or face to face. Advice and information about sexual health, HIV, legislation affecting LGBT people. Signposting to other organisations and services.
Campaigns, provision of printed and online sexual health promotion materials. Editorial and features in the gay press
Men with HIV, all of our mainstream services are developed with due regard to HIV status - be that positive, untested or negative. Additionally we offer a service for positive men with wide ranging information as well as one to one support for men with HIV and their partner(s).
South Asian men from a variety of backgrounds are well represented within our area and our South Asian Men’s Workers provide individual advice and support.
African-Caribbean men’s services include the Mayisha social group with cultural events for men and women. Individual support is also available from our African-Caribbean Men’s Worker.
Drop In Centre, situated in the gay village at Centre 146, this is an informal space where users can speak in confidence to HGL staff. Tuesdays 16.30 – 19.30, Fridays 14.30 – 18.30.
Clinic @ 146 is a joint service with Whittall Street Dept of GU Medicine. Aimed at men with no symptoms who require a check up. Fast HIV testing, walk in or by appointment. Mondays 16.00 – 18.30, Thursdays 09.45 – 12.00, 13.00 – 18.30
Outreach takes place in gay bars, saunas and cruising areas as well as online. Advice, information, referrals to other organisations, condoms and lubricant.
Married Men’s Group, fortnightly meetings on Mondays in the early evening and telephone support to individuals. Aimed to support the sexual and emotional health needs of married men, those in relationships with women or bi-curious.
Our resources
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Wear it, fill it, bin it.
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Created:
11/19/2010
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Download this
posters document
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Time to update your HIV status?
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Created:
11/19/2010
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Download this
posters document
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Healthy gay life counselling
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Created:
11/19/2010
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Download this
leaflets document
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Training and groupwork
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Created:
11/19/2010
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Download this
leaflets document
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Opening times
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Created:
11/19/2010
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Download this
posters document