Mon 31 Mar 2014 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
National glbti community help and information lines will not be affected by the government's announced intention to combine a number of health-related 0800 services into one entity. National information and support service Outline says its toll-free line will be unaffected as the government has no influence over it, "because they don't contribute one cent to the costs of running our service," says Outline GM Trevor Easton. He says the organisation believes assisting glbti people experiencing issues stemming from their sexuality can only be done by glbti people. His comments are reflected by Body Positive which runs an information, support and referral for people concerned about their HIV status or those affected by HIV. "Ours is not a service which would sit at all comfortably within a more generalised service," GM Bruce Kilmister says. Kilmister says there has been no approach from the Ministry of Health "or anyone else" and "we would strongly resist any such suggestion." The NZ AIDS Foundation has also confirmed that there are no plans for its HIV/AIDS information and contact line to be merged into the larger and centralised operation.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 31st March 2014 - 8:36pm