Overcoming barriers to effective delivery of care and support for people living with HIV from culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Australia

Culturally and linguistically diverse people from high HIV prevalence countries, people who travel to these countries, and their partners are listed as a priority population in the 8th Australian National HIV Strategy (Department of Health, 2018) due to the relatively higher rates of HIV in these communities. In Australia, the overall rate of new HIV transmissions declined by 7% between 2010 and 2017 (The Kirby Institute, 2018). However, this decline was only evident within communities of Australian-born gay and bisexual men. For people born overseas, there was an increase in the rate of new HIV transmissions over the same time period. This suggests that HIV prevention, care and support needs of smaller and more diverse populations are not being met by current service delivery although research is currently limited on what these needs are or how they can best be addressed. This paper reports on a series of interviews that were conducted with community and healthcare providers. The aim was to explore whether current models of HIV community service delivery, and the composition of the HIV health workforce, can adequately support people living with HIV (PLHIV) from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. While HIV prevention was not a direct focus of this study, the care and support of PLHIV – including support for PLHIV to access treatment and sustain viral suppression– is inherently related to HIV prevention.