Call for an HIV/AIDS policy

Caribbean AIDS Activist, Dr Carol Jacobs, last week stressed that Jamaican work places needed to have an AIDS policy in place to deal with the growing problem of the disease in Jamaica.

If this was not in place, she said companies could find themselves dealing with low morale, increased medical costs and overall decline in productivity.

“An HIV/AIDS policy defines a companies position and practice as it relates to an employee with an HIV infection. It informs employees where to go for help and instructs supervisors how to address HIV in the work environment,” said Jacobs who was speaking at a workshop put on by the Jamaica Employers Federation on how to formulate an HIV policy.

A clear-cut policy she said would help to cut down on staff with the disease not coming forward with the problem.

“There can be loss of productivity, decline in profits and increased business cost if you have to retrain persons. There is the issue of absenteeism, payout of death benefits, pension benefits and so on that need to be addressed in a clear-cut way,” she said. Jacobs, who has been an advocate for over 15 years, said that there needed to be more education on AID in the workplace to cut down on some of the stigma attached to the disease.

“Education must be ongoing. You can’t do one training session and think that you have done what you should do. It has to be done at least once every three to six months,” she said. It was crucial she said that every effort be made to accommodate persons with the disease as it could happen to anyone who was sexually active.

“You would not want someone to deny you a job if you had the disease and was perfectly capable of continuing to work… You would say that person was unfair so why should you do it to someone else?” she questioned. In 2001 30,000 persons in the Caribbean died from the disease. There are about 480,000 persons in the Caribbean living with the HIV/AIDS.

In a later interview with All Woman she said how much she enjoyed what she did.

“Fifteen years ago I got involved in the fight against AIDS. I was on the executive of the Barbadian Medical Association. At the time we were educating our profession about the disease because it was a new thing. But that triggered my involvement in the area. I found I enjoyed it and just continued,” she said.

Jamaican-born, Jacobs is the Chairman of the Barbadian National Commission on HIV/AIDS and has represented Barbados and the Caribbean on AIDS programmes carried out by the United Nations and the World Health Organisation. She has been very involved in community work and has received many awards including 1996 Woman of the Year by the Weekend Investigator in Barbados, Barbados Centennial Honour (2001) and Kiwanis Citizen of the Year Award (2002).

According to Jacobs, she enjoyed carrying the message of AIDS prevention to communities that would not otherwise hear it.

“We have documentaries and we try to find interesting ways to get a message across that will capture them. We work with national cricketers, Calypsonians, national champions to get message across through dance and drama, sports and music,” she said. Jacobs said that she was motivated to continue in her work because of the opportunity to save lives. She had lost colleagues and friends to the disease, she said but not family. She told All Woman that she did not believe that there was any particular role that she saw women playing in the fight against HIV.

“Women are traditionally caring, open care-givers and providers so they are often cast in the role of care-givers but in reality across the Caribbean, women are at every level – from formulation of policies to capacity-building so they can make an impact wherever they are,” she said.

Married to a Barbadian for over thirty years, Jacobs is proud that she has become a grandmother.

“My joy is my grandchildren -I have three of them. They call me mama and I am adjusting to my grandma role,” she said. She has two sons with her husband, Dr Richard Haynes.