Friday night HIV counseling and testing

The Institute for Public Health will organize a night counseling and HIV testing action on Friday, as part of a public campaign to raise awareness of personal responsibility and motivate the public to overcome prejudice and stigma when it comes to HIV testing.

As announced by the Institute, the action will be organized on the occasion of the World Day against HIV/AIDS, in cooperation with HIV counseling centers in Montenegrin health centers.

Counseling and testing will be organized in the Counseling Center of the Institute, and in those in health centers in Bar, Berane, Bijelo Polje, Kotor, Herceg Novi, Kotor, Nikšić and Pljevlja, from 18:23 to XNUMX:XNUMX.

"The test results will be issued on the same day, 45 minutes after the test, because it is done with rapid tests," the statement said.

The Institute explained that counseling with HIV testing is a confidential conversation between the client and the counselor, with the aim of assessing one's own risk for HIV infection and considering a change in behavior that leads to the prevention of HIV infection.

Counseling helps the person understand and recognize the real risk, and reduces their anxiety and fear related to HIV. Counseling can be done with individuals, couples or families, and the content and approach depend on the characteristics and needs of the clients.

Counseling helps people to be informed about how HIV is transmitted, how to recognize risks in their behavior that lead to infection, how to practice safe sex, where to take an HIV test and, depending on the results, to take actions to avoid being infected or to infect others.

"The process consists of counseling before and after the test, as well as continuous counseling as long as there is a need for it," the Institute stated.

According to them, the basic principles of counseling are voluntariness, consent, confidentiality and anonymity.

"In Montenegro, anonymity is limited only to those whose result of the first preliminary test is negative"

Consent implies that everyone has the right to know their HIV result, and that the person decides for himself whether or not he wants to know his status.

Confidentiality means that the data that clients leave with the advisor during the conversation will never be used, misused, communicated publicly or to any other person.

"Trust between the counselor and the client increases the client's willingness to turn to other levels of health and social care," the Institute believes.

Anonymity, as they explained, means that no one has access to the client's data, nor can the test result of those who have been tested anonymously be connected in any way with data about that person.

"In Montenegro, anonymity is limited only to those whose result of the first preliminary test is negative," says the announcement.

The action will be implemented within the framework of the HIV/AIDS Strategy Support Program in Montenegro developed by the Montenegrin National AIDS Commission, which is supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) and UNDP.

The Institute states that the night-time HIV testing actions in the wider region "showed a great response from both the general population and those who are at particular risk for HIV due to behavior that leads to infection," the statement added.