Adam Shanley with his partner Francisco Figueroa
Adam Shanley of HIV Ireland is the director of the MPOWER programme, which focuses on grassroots, community-led HIV testing. At the GALAS he was nominated for the LGBT+ Role Model Award, with HIV Ireland being nominated for the Noel Walsh HIV Activism Award. He was modest about the nominations - “It’s great to be recognised,” he acknowledged, praising the other nominees and winners in both categories.
MPOWER and HIV Ireland do deserve any and all of the recognition that has, only recently, been on the rise. The campaign, which is funded by the HSE, is the result and culmination of many years of hard work and grassroots campaigning by Shanley and many others. Adam has been working with, and campaigning for, People Living With HIV for nearly five years. As part of his work with HIV Ireland, he began to notice the deficits in terms of services and resources, and campaigned for a redevelopment of GBT men’s health communications. “We made a bit of noise, in pure activist mode,” he laughs. But it worked.
The rise in HIV rates in Ireland is the most rapid in Europe, disproportionately affecting gay and bisexual men, with increased rates of bacterial infections such as syphilis and gonorrhoea also. The community, Shanley adds, are also struggling with the sexualised use of drugs such as GHB and crystal meth. All of this combines with non-medical issues also prevalent among gay and bisexual men, such as issues of self-esteem, self-worth, and a lack of community. “All of these challenges require a coordinated, sensitive and holistic approach.”
The new MPOWER programme consists of bringing gay men’s health services together under one banner, and includes rapid HIV testing; fast responses to the sexual health and wellbeing of the community; and greatly improved outreach and advertisement services. They then approached the HSE with the model for the programme and with the funding they received: “It gave us the opportunity to amalgamate separate bits that we had been working on into one programme.”