Springboard Media’s Tilley Harris caught up with Mainliners’ Pauline Hennessey at the V music festival
What does mainliners do?
Mainliners works across blood borne viruses, drugs and sexual health to help those most vulnerable. In Scotland we have a national action plan which we are in phase two of now, Hep C is a massive problem in Scotland as well as the UK, it is obviously very noticeable in Scotland because there is less of a population.
What are the charities main objectives?
Well there are many different parts to mainliners, we work with people experiencing current drug problems, housing problems, homeless people or people that work on the streets, like prostitutes, at a real grassroots level. Then we have departments working at a much higher level. We do a lot of awareness training with GPs, nurses and doctors and of course the government because that is who we are funded by so we are trying to influence them.
Mainliners aim to educate and inform. Do you do any work in schools?
We do the Freshers’ Fairs in Universities and try to spread the word there. When you ask the students questions you can see they don’t know the difference between Hep B and C. Often they don’t know it exists at all. It’s quite worrying that they are at an age where they are leaving home for the first time without any information or education on these issues. If they don’t know, how can they protect themselves. I don’t think there is enough work being done at school level and that is something we are definitely trying to work on. Even amongst medic students or nurses their knowledge isn’t always as good as you would expect it to be.
What are you concerned about when you are at a festival like this talking to people?
Missing knowledge. One of the things we try not to do is scaremongering, we just try to fill in the gaps. One thing people are always most shocked about is that the disease can live outside the body for 3 weeks. Providing facts like that will hopefully make people think a little more or differently about Hep C. It can be living on toothbrushes and razors.
How does meeting people face-to-face compare to your online centre?
Well festivals are great because you are meeting a whole range of the general public.
We also did Womad - 250, 000 people and Tea in the Park. You’re meeting a variety of ages from grannies to young kids and everyone is individual and has their own thing to say or ask. It is really surprising how many people we talk to and they say ‘oh my sister’s got that’ or ‘my friend's boyfriend has that’. It is out there and people are beginning to be more aware of it.
How much of a drug problem do you think Britain has?
I don’t work with drug users personally but talking to my colleagues they say that that there is still a massive drugs problem in the UK, I think there always will be - it’s not going to disappear.
Harm reduction is so important. Our statistics show that 92% of people with Hep C have got it through drug use, so that is a massive percentage. Massive.
It is hard because a lot of people that find out they have Hep C don’t do drugs anymore, but because of the virus they have to face their past again. That is quite hard for some because that is a part of their life they have left behind, but hep c is a constant reminder – with the treatment as well because you have to go back to injecting. Some people have said the treatment is like having a bad hit.
Do you think the links between diseases and drugs are emphasised enough?
No, I don’t think they are. I think there is a lot of focus on getting people off drugs. But what people don’t realise is that they may well move on and away from their drugs habit and think that they are ok, but actually they’re not. They still have this thing hanging over them (if they have contracted a blood borne virus) by they time they find out they no longer take drugs so the connection isn’t as strong.
How much do you think your outreach programme contributes to minimising harm?
Well the Be Blood Aware campaign has only started this summer so the data we have collected hasn’t been analysed yet. This year we are getting people to fill in these questionnaires so we can assess behaviour. It’s about identifying lack of knowledge and risk in behaviours and once that has been identified we can then talk to them about changing certain behaviours. We will talk about drugs. We will talk about travelling because with more and more students travelling on gap years and possibly having to have an injection in a third world country where they don’t screen for Hep C or B. We will talk about tattooing.
Talking to people is the most important thing and at these festivals you interact with so many different people from grannies to kids. I was talking to three young girls at the Womad festival and just as they were leaving I heard them saying to their mum ‘Did you know mum that you shouldn't share toothbrushes because you could be spreading infection.’ That was great because they had actually listened to what I said. It is just about getting the message out there.
What is the one point you like to get across if nothing else?
I think it would have to be how long Hep C can live outside the body that always gets people’s attention and always makes them think. You can discuss things with them after that they might not remember everything but that seems to be a fact that sticks in people’s minds. It leads nicely into discussions about if there is a blood spill at work how would you go about cleaning up? Even if you clean it up with hot soapy water the virus could still be there because the area hasn’t been sterilised. These kind of things stick in peoples heads.
How do you establish if your intervention will alter behaviour?
Well that’s why we are collecting data. We are hoping in the future after doing these campaigns for a good few years and we then see a drop in blood borne virus rates start to fall then we will be able to make that link. That’s the long term thing, right now it is just about passing on knowledge it is then up to people what they do with that knowledge but at least we are giving them the chance to learn.
Are you optimistic about the future?
Yes. Well I am Scottish and in Scotland I think we are doing a pretty good job at tackling the situation. With this action plan all the money is in the right place and we have involved all areas of health care. England have admitted that they have fallen behind a bit.
200 million people have Hep C worldwide,
what country do you think is leading the way
to tackling Hep C epidemic?
Well Scotland in a way,
France and Italy are doing really well as well.
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