WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
Hello and welcome!
If you are reading this page, you will probably have come here from the text message sent out by the Bloomsbury Clinic to all its patients. Thanks for clicking the link!
If you’d like to sign up to our newsletter, and become a member of the network, please click on this link. We'll just need your name and an email address, nothing else.
If you have been a member of the Network in the past, but haven't been getting our emails over the last year or so, please do sign up again to make sure that we have your most up-to-date contact details.
If you already receive regular information from the Network, you don’t need to sign up again.
Sign up today: click any of the pink links or the JOIN NOW buttons on this page.
The Bloomsbury who?
The Bloomsbury Network is the patient support group, attached to the Bloomsbury clinic at the Mortimer Market Centre. Set up over twenty years ago, the network has been helping to support people living with HIV, who get their care at the Bloomsbury Clinic. Our aim is to empower people living with HIV (PLWH) to live healthy, happy, and productive lives.
Our motto is “Education, Empathy, Empowerment”, and we believe passionately in all three of those elements coming together to ensure that living with HIV doesn’t have to be something that inhibits a person’s ability to live their lives to the full.
How much does it cost?
All of the services that we provide are entirely free-of-charge and becoming a member is as easy as signing up to our newsletter, which you can do by clicking the big pink “Join” button at the bottom of this page, or the Join Now buttons dotted throughout it.
Once you have signed up, you will start to receive the emails that we send out about our upcoming events, which will include everything you need to know about how to take part in any that interest you.
You can also browse through the pages of this website at any time, and see what events on our calendar you might like to attend.
Who are we?
The Bloomsbury Network is entirely run by volunteers, who are all themselves patients at the Bloomsbury Clinic. The power of peer support, i.e., support from someone who has been through the same situation as the person being supported, is immeasurable.
No matter what your story, your background, your level of understanding about your condition, we all share one thing: we are all living with HIV, so we understand what it means to experience and deal with an HIV diagnosis, and accept, and even embrace it as a part of our lives.
What do we do?
Throughout the year, we provide a range of services for our members. These include social events, like the summer picnic, and the Christmas party, which we have been holding for many years. We have also organised trips to Kew gardens, for example, and we are always looking for more fun ways to bring our members together.
Our social events are always filled with much laughter. Many people come to them on their own, not knowing anyone else, but they always leave with lots of new friends, having had a wonderful time. There’s nothing like being in an environment, where you can just be yourself, without having to worry about what anyone else thinks, for lifting the spirits.
We also host online webinars, and in-person forums on a wide variety of subjects that affect people living with HIV.
We have had speakers talking about:
- the latest advances in medications for HIV
- nutrition for PLWH
- how to share your status with others safely, and with confidence
- women’s health and how it relates to HIV
- research studies into the prevalence of various other health conditions within the HIV community
- and many, many more.
We are lucky that the Bloomsbury Clinic is one of the leading research clinics in the world, and our research staff, nurses, and HIV consultants are among the best on the planet. Many of them have given their time to come and talk to our members, and we are always lining up fascinating new subjects and speakers for our members to benefit from.
Four times a year the Bloomsbury Network delivers our flagship service, the Beyond Diagnosis Course. The BDC runs over three consecutive Saturdays, in person, and is specifically aimed at people who might be finding it difficult to come to terms with their diagnosis, or who feel that their HIV status is holding them back in life, or affecting them, emotionally, psychologically, or physically, in negative ways.
The BDC covers topics including:
- HIV transmission
- how HIV does what it does
- how the medication works, and why it’s important to take it as directed
- HIV and the law, and how it impacts someone living with it, in terms of life insurance, and travel insurance, as well as discrimination in the work place, and other legal issues
- disclosure, and how to share your story if you feel that it is safe and appropriate to do so
- stigma and shame, and why they are so effective, and how we can combat them
- general wellbeing—ways in which you can enrich your life, and take advantage of the many services that are out there to support PLWH.
All of the facilitators of the BDC are either Bloomsbury patients themselves, or work at the clinic as part of the Peer Support Team, so everyone in the room is living with HIV, and understands the many thorny issues that people can struggle with, relating to their HIV status.
Future plans
We have a number of plans for new initiatives that were are hoping to get off the ground in the coming months.
Allies Group:
This is a course specifically designed for the friends, loved ones, and family members of someone living with HIV, who might need help getting information, and who may be struggling with dealing with someone else's diagnosis or status, and not know where to turn for advice. The course will be largely modelled on our existing Beyond Diagnosis Course, but will be tailored to suit the needs of the people around the person living with HIV.
If you know someone who might benefit from this kind of course, or if you know someone who might be interested in joining a focus group prior to setting it up, we'd love to hear from you/them.
Women's Circle:
At the Bloomsbury Network, we are committed to reaching all of the varied communities that are affected by HIV. Each group has its own specific needs and priorities. We will be starting regular sessions for women living with HIV, where they can come together, share, and support each other, in a non-judgmental, safe space. If this is something that might be of interest to you, please do make sure you sign up to our newsletter, so that you can be kept up to date of any developments.
So, what’s next?
Please do join: the Bloomsbury Network is YOUR network. It’s YOUR voice that counts. The more members we have, the more we will be able to be aware of what matters to you most, and the more we will be able to adapt the services that we provide to better suit your needs.
Your personal details will always remain private. We use MailerLite to manage our newsletter service, and they are governed by strict data protection laws, so you can be sure that your data is perfectly safe with us.
What can you do?
If just being on the mailing list isn’t enough for you, and you would like to take a more active role in being part of the Network, we are always looking for more people to get involved, and help us to manage the events we run, and the day-to-day admin of the network itself.
We are also on the hunt for a few more members of the Bloomsbury Network steering committee, so if you are in a position to be able to give us some of your time, we’d like to hear from you. The more well-rounded our team, the more we can reach the different communities that we serve within our membership, and that has to be good for everyone.
If you would like to know more about how you can help, please email admin@bloomsburynetwork.co.uk, and one of our team will get back to you.
And finally...
The Bloomsbury Network is there to support you, so if you have any feedback for us on ways that we can further our mission to improve the lives of people living with HIV, please let us know (admin@bloomsburynetwork.co.uk). We’ll be delighted to hear from you.
Similarly, if you have any ideas for the subjects of forums and webinars that you would like to see, please do get in touch.
With very best wishes,
The Bloomsbury Network Team
