June 2003

Community marks hep C helpline anniversary

The annual call rate to the Vietnamese Hepatitis C Helpline has increased from 450 in 1998 to about 1,500 in 2002.

The Vietnamese information line was the first ethnic hotline added in 1998 to the Hepatitis C Helpline which was established in 1995.

A celebration to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Vietnamese Helpline was held at the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Welfare Association.

Representatives from the Department of Human Services, community groups and associated health care organisations joined staff and volunteers from the Hepatitis C Helpline to acknowledge the hotline’s achievement and ongoing success.

AIDS Hepatitis and Sexual Health Line Education and Development Coordinator Alex Nikolovski said the Hepatitis C Helpline was established in Victoria in 1995 in response to the need for information and counselling in the general community.

‘As we moved through the ‘90s, it became evident that services and information around health issues such as hepatitis C and harm minimisation provided to the Vietnamese community needed to be more effective.

‘The stigma and discrimination attached to people with hepatitis C is often due to being identified as injecting drug users,’ Mr Nikolovski said.

‘This perception affects all communities but in the Vietnamese community this often carries a particularly profound social shame and sense of dishonour.

‘This cultural sensitivity, coupled with other forms of disadvantage, reinforced the idea that a different strategy needed to be formulated, one that would meet the unique needs of the Vietnamese community.’

The Vietnamese Helpline was set up after extensive consultation with Vietnamese welfare, community and health services.

The line is a pre-recorded information service, in Vietnamese, that offers multiple options to the caller.

It has the advantage of being confidential, affordable, immediately-accessible and provides complete anonymity, overcoming the prime cultural barriers that might otherwise prevent someone in the Vietnamese community accessing any information about hepatitis C.

The service aims to increase awareness of hepatitis C, provide information about the ways in which it is transmitted and to supply the Vietnamese community with approaches to harm reduction.

• The Vietnamese Information Line can be accessed on 1800 456 007.