Best Practices for Indigenous Communities On HIV, Privacy and Confidentiality

Knowing your rights and responsibilities when it comes to HIV disclosure, privacy and confidentiality is an important way to protect your privacy. A new guide issued by Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) for rural indigenous communities provides answers to common questions on disclosure, privacy and confidentiality in the health care settings, workplaces, post-secondary institutions and other settings — places where many Indigenous people living with HIV have expressed concerns about their privacy.

"When the privacy of an Indigenous person living with HIV has been
compromised, the harmful effects can be felt by an entire community. If your HIV-positive status has been disclosed without your permission, others in the community may be more reluctant to get tested for HIV or get HIV treatment, care and support. This makes the protection of privacy for Indigenous people all the more important," claims authors of the brochure.

You can download the 'Indigenous communities: HIV, privacy and confidentiality' booklet by this link http://www.aidslaw.ca/site/download/15623/