Resources on COVID-19 Support, Advocacy, Gender and HIV

Submitted on Sep 21, 2021

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Table of Contents

Founded in 2002, The Well Project was created to be a trusted virtual resource providing accurate, relevant, and up-to-date information on women and HIV. It is extremely important during this difficult time that we share only trusted, evidence-based information—taking the time to review the source and content of articles, memes, or posts before sharing on social media. We have compiled a list of trusted resources* we believe can be useful to our community including women living with HIV, their allies, and healthcare providers.

"We will get through this trying time together. It is important to remember that we are stronger as a community than alone" – Krista Martel, The Well Project's executive director, in a letter published on March 13, 2020: Getting Through COVID-19 Together (Virtually) - The Importance of our Online Support Community

*Information and data on COVID-19 (the new coronavirus) are very rapidly evolving. These resources include general information. Many are frequently updated – so it is a good idea to check the date on each resource after clicking on it. If you are a clinician, be sure to refer to updated sources for more specific recommendations regarding COVID-19. If you have an additional resource to add to this list, please email Olivia Ford.

COVID-19 and HIV – Clinical and U.S. Federal Resources

COVID-19 Vaccination and Clinical Trials: View this informative and engaging conversation with A Girl Like Me LIVE host Ci Ci Covin, physician and advocate Oni Blackstock, MD,  and The Well Project CAB chair Gina Brown, RSW, covering the COVID-19 vaccine, clinical trials, and more to know to keep safe.

 

 

View other episodes in the A Girl Like Me LIVE series

COVID-19 and HIV – Community-Based Information

News and Resources

Perspectives

  • Surviving Covid (A Girl Like Me): Blogger Marig1966 shares her weeks-long battle with COVID-19.
  • The Covid Vaccine (A Girl Like Me): Blogger Escalice shares her thought process around deciding to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
  • Grieving in the Age of COVID-19 (A Girl Like Me): A heartbreaking account of mounting family and community losses from COVID-19, which New Orleans-based blogger and community advisory board member Gina Brown (MzGee1966) calls her "2020 Hurricane Katrina."
  • Stigma at Times of COVID-19 (A Girl Like Me): Blogger HIVstigmafighter provides an important teachable moment on stigma for a health care provider.
  • Remembering HIV Activist Deloris Dockrey, Recently Lost to COVID-19 (TheBody): A touching and informative interview with Martha Cameron, regional coordinator for the International Community of Women Living with HIV North America (ICW-NA), about her late colleague and friend. (see below for a full obituary of Dockrey)
  • Quarantine, Anxiety, Pregnancy, and Learning How to Forgive Myself (A Girl Like Me): New blogger HEROConnor shares fears, concerns, and gratitude.
  • My Anti-Stigma Message (A Girl Like Me): Blogger Lynnea shares her thoughts on stigmas surrounding COVID-19 and HIV, as well as the realities of being a working parent during this pandemic.
  • Isolation (A Girl Like Me): Blogger Angel S.'s poetic meditation on times of quarantine.
  • The Children Know (Yale Review): When the author's father died of AIDS complications, he couldn't shield her from his pain or the government's indifference. With COVID-19 - and children of her own - she relives that trauma.
  • African Americans Are Bearing the Brunt of the Coronavirus Pandemic—Including My Family in Albany, Georgia (TheBody): HIV advocate and writer Ace Robinson shares expertise on race and health disparities - and his own experience losing family members in a Southern town hard-hit by COVID-19. 
  • COVID-19 and People Living with HIV (Global Network of People Living with HIV - GNP+; International Community of Women Living with HIV - ICW; Global Network of Young People with HIV - Y+): Archive of information, resources and stories of how our communities are responding and taking action to protect the rights of people living with HIV.

Learning from the HIV Response

COVID-19 and HIV – Vaccine Information

COVID-19 Vaccination: On this episode of A Girl Like Me LIVE, host Ci Ci Covin talked with advocate Gina Brown, RSW, about her personal experience with the COVID-19 vaccine, clinical trials, vaccine hesitancy, and more.

 

 

View other episodes in the A Girl Like Me LIVE series

Webinars, Multimedia, and Interactive Resources

Please note: If a webinar listed is in the past and the recording has not yet been linked from this page, click the link to see if the organization has posted the recording recently.

Ongoing Events

  • COVID-19 (Coronavirus) (Transgender Law Center - TLC): Resources and videos on how trans people can support each other and advocate at a local, state, and federal level for the care, resources, and support they deserve.
  • #PWNCares Sister Circle Virtual Support Group (Positive Women's Network - USA — PWN-USA): PWN-USA is starting a new virtual support group via videoconference on Zoom, which you can also join by phone. After clicking the link and completing the form, you will receive the link and call-in info.
  • Love Your Life (Iris House): A virtual group for women living with HIV across the United States, now taking place every other Thursday of each month. Fill out a confidential intake form to participate.
  • Virtual Support Group (ICW-North America): Fill out a one-time registration form to attend this weekly meeting for women living with HIV.
  • Heart Space (BEAM - Black Emotional and Mental Health): A Black-centered virtual weekly wellness drop-in room (Tuesdays 5pm ET) led by yoga teacher and wellness facilitator Yolo Akili.
  • A Girl Like Me and Una Chica Como Yo (The Well Project): An online blog where women and girls living with HIV can share their experiences. The e-AA Group: Online 12-step programming.
  • The e-AA Group: Online 12-step programming.

Past Events and Recordings

Advocacy, Policy, and Mutual Aid

Source: UN Women.

General COVID-19 Information

Please note: these resources are not specific to people living with HIV.

Basics and Overall Health

Women's Health and Pregnancy

Data Visualization

  • Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases (Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University): Continually updated open-access dashboard on the epidemiology of the global pandemic.
  • COVID-19 Cases and Deaths (amfAR): Striking timeline animations of the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. in general, and specifically in U.S. states and jurisdictions with Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) plans.

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Source: amfAR

Having Sex Safely with COVID-19

Coping with Stress

  • Quarantine Fatigue Is Real (Atlantic): A Harvard epidemiologist shares her reflection that, instead of an all-or-nothing approach to risk prevention, Americans need a manual on how to have a life in a pandemic.
  • Coping With COVID: A Yoga Sequence (Body Politic): Descriptions and detailed photographs guiding readers through a gentle yoga series developed for the COVID-19 era. 
  • Stress Management (The Well Project): Learn about common signs and causes of stress, how stress affects women living with HIV, and how to reduce and cope with stress in your life.
  • Coping with Coronavirus Stress (WellAcademic): Helpful, straightforward guidance for caring for ourselves and maintaining compassion for ourselves during these challenging times. 
  • Depression, Women, and HIV (The Well Project): Learn about depression – what it is, why women living with HIV are likely to have it, and why it is important to find and treat.
  • Care for Your Coronavirus Anxiety (Shine): Resources for anxiety and your mental health in a global climate of uncertainty.
  • Emotional Health & Wellbeing Resources (University of California San Francisco): Resources in response to common questions regarding emotional wellbeing during COVID-19.

Preparation and Free Entertainment Resources

COVID-19 and Criminalization

COVID-19 and Immigrant Communities

Facts and Support for People of Immigrant Experience

Advocacy Information

Crisis Hotlines

  • The National Domestic Violence Hotline has advocates available to confidentially speak with survivors of domestic violence. Advocates are available 24 hours per day and can be reached at (800) 799-SAFE. Survivors can chat with advocates here or text LOVEIS to 22522.
  • The National Sexual Assault Hotline provides confidential 24-hour support for survivors of sexual assault. Trained staff can be reached at (800) 656-HOPE (4673) and through chat.
  • Trans Lifeline provides direct emotional and financial support to trans people in crisis. It can be reached at (877) 565-8860.
  • The Deaf Hotline has advocates available to provide 24-hour crisis intervention, education, information, and referral for deaf, deafblind, and deafdisabled survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault through video phone at (855) 812-1001, (800) 787-3224 (TTY), chat, and email at nationaldeafhotline@adwas.org.

Resources Available in Multiple Languages

COVID-19 and HIV – Resources for Health Workers and Other Professionals

  • CURE [Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion] HIV-COVID Reporting Database: A database to monitor and report on outcomes of COVID-19 occurring in people living with HIV. HIV clinicians in the United States are encouraged to report ALL cases of COVID-19 in their HIV patients, regardless of severity.

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    COVID-19 and Violence Against Women (WHO; infographics): Downloadable images sharing important guidance to support people experiencing violence at home during COVID-19.  

  • Design 4 Learning (D4L) (ETR): Information on ETR's D4L approach, and a series of resources to help you transition from in-person teaching and training to powerful online design and delivery.
  • COVID-19 and Medical Mistrust in the Black Community (AIDS Education & Training Center Southeast): Slides and recording from a recent webinar on the history of medical mistreatment of Black communities, how that has contributed to mistrust that blocks access to care, and what providers can do to support Black clients' engagement in care.
  • COVID-19: Special Considerations for People Living with HIV (HIV Medicine Association and Infectious Diseases Society of America; PDF): A resource for clinicians and public health officials. The information is based on best practices in areas that have been heavily impacted by COVID-19.
  • COVID-19 Online Educational Program (Virology Education): An online interactive meeting series for care providers involved in the management of novel coronavirus patients. 
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19) Frequently Asked Questions (U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration – HRSA): Information for Ryan White grantees and HIV care providers from HRSA, administrator of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.
  • COVID-19 Updates and Resources (U.S. National Association of State and Territorial AIDS Directors): Helpful, regularly updated guidance to help ensure the continuity of essential programming and the protection of people living with and vulnerable to HIV and viral hepatitis.
  • COVID-19 Resources (Association of Nurses in AIDS Care – ANAC): Weekly updates of COVID-19 resources and webinar recordings for healthcare workers and people living with HIV. 
  • Events (BEAM - Black Emotional and Mental Health): Virtual trainings and conversations for mental health and care providers.
  • COVID-19 Drug Interactions: Prescribing Resources (Liverpool Drug Interaction Group, University Hospital of Basel, and Radboud UMC): Various materials to aid the use of experimental agents in the treatment of COVID-19. 
  • Managing Stress & Self-Care During COVID-19: Information for Nurses (American Psychiatric Nurses Association): Self-care for impacted frontline health workers. 
  • Medicare Telemedicine Health Care Provider Fact Sheet (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services): Helpful guidance for shifting practices.
  • Project N95: A resource for healthcare providers to identify urgent demand and assist the government in coordinating, manufacturing, and delivering PPE. (Seeking individuals with advanced technology, supply chain, or epidemiology experience, for online coordination. View volunteer form)

Honoring Community Members Lost to COVID-19

  • Tributes to HIV/AIDS Community Members We've Lost to COVID-19 So Far (TheBody): Slideshow commemorating folks who have died of COVID-19 who were living with HIV, working in the field, and/or addressing HIV in media, art, and culture. Author Tim Murphy asks those who know others in the HIV community who passed away from COVID-19 to email him.

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Our Community Champion, Deloris Dockrey (ICW, GNP+, PWN-USA): Dockrey was a ray of light and positivity, as well as a fierce advocate for the rights of people living with HIV, especially women.

 

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R.I.P. Lorena Borjas, a Transgender Latinx Activist Lost to COVID-19 (POZ; includes video): Borjas fought tirelessly for transgender and immigrant communities in New York City, operating HIV-testing programs and syringe exchanges and fighting to change police policies toward trans people and sex workers.

Source: Community Healthcare Network

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Members of The Well Project community at USCHA 2022.

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