Anova provides HIV-related support to the Adult and Paediatric Infectious Disease Clinics as well as the Mental Health Programme at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH). The facility is a tertiary level academic hospital and is the chief teaching hospital of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) medical school.

Mental Health

The huge burden that living with HIV places on the psychological wellbeing of patients is gaining recognition in HIV treatment and care.

Dealing with the life-changing impact of the virus often leads to debilitating depression which can interfere with a patient’s treatment adherence. In addition, on a biological level, the virus often affects the neurochemistry of the brain, sometimes leading to psychoses that require specialist response. Few HIV counsellors and primary healthcare providers are given adequate training and skills required to effectively deal with this added dimension of HIV care and treatment.

Anova, in partnership with the Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH) neuropsychiatry team, has launched a comprehensive campaign committed to addressing this previously neglected need. The response is mainly aimed at empowering primary healthcare providers to identify mental health disorders among people living with HIV and make the appropriate referrals to specialists.

The team has developed an easy-to-use screening tool and has trained lay counsellors in its correct use and application. Anova has also organised workshops that focus on the screening tool. This pioneering undertaking is disseminated as part of a pocket guide to mental health, available in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa, which is widely distributed to counsellors and is also available as a free download from Anova’s website. Over 1,500 copies of the manual have been disseminated in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

In 2011 the mental health team’s work was showcased at a symposium on mental health and HIV, titled “Mind, Body, HAART: Mental health in HIV”.  Attended by over 130 delegates, the symposium promoted awareness and deeper understanding of the relationship between HIV and mental health disorders among HIV clinicians and academics.

Click here to go to the GSH-HIV Mental Health Group website.

Groote Schuur (GSH) Adult Infectious Disease Clinic

The service is situated at the adult tertiary level academic teaching hospital of the University of Cape Town (UCT) and provides specialist services to its affiliated primary and secondary level hospitals.

The majority testing for HIV are in the 25 - 50 age group. The majority of the clients who test positive for HIV also test positive for complex TB co-infection, and require further assessment by the clinic.

HIV-TB training and research is a major focus of the division’s work and the work of the GSH-HIV Adults project as a whole. In 2009, the team were instrumental in developing HIV-Hepatitis B Co-infection guidelines for the Southern Africa HIV Clinicians Society, highlighting HIV patients as a risk group, and helping to develop renal transplant programmes for HIV-infected clients with end-stage renal failure.

HIV & TB

Anova provides HIV and TB support to three hospirals in the Western Cape.

PEPFAR-funded senior registrar, Tom Boyles provides outreach to DP Marais, Victoria and New Somerset Hospitals.

ART Paediatrics

Anova supports the GSH Paediatric Infectious Diseases Unit under the KidzPositive banner, an initiative that, in partnership with the Department of Health, runs the paediatric HIV clinic at GSH and initiates outreach programmes to the local clinics at Crossroads and Mitchell's Plain.

The clinic provides a comprehensive care package to families affected by HIV and acts as a referral centre for children who require secondary and tertiary care (aged 0-18) and children who experience a greater challenge with adherence, including pre-adolescent and adolescent groups. This project also helps when a child needs to be informed of their positive status. It trains lay counsellors on disclosure and provides a part-time psychologist for further one-on-one psychological assessments.

The Kidzpositive GSH clinic also offers individual support groups for “juniors” aged 10-12 and “seniors” over the age of 12. A new adolescent ward at GSH caters for young people requiring hospital admission. This is an important resource for patients presenting in adolescence, often with advanced AIDS-defining conditions.

The Kidzpositive income-generation project has been an important element of comprehensive healthcare delivery during the past nine years and currently supports more than 150 families at the Groote Schuur, TC Newman and False Bay hospitals.

Groote Schuur Hospital Treatment Sites