The pace is picking up at the LGBTI+ center, rue des Trois-Visages, which has already been providing health services for a year. The cadence, until then bimonthly, has evolved to become weekly: Xavier Villain (health manager of Fiertés Pas-de-Calais) or Romain Hequet (president of the association) receive users with or without an appointment, on Tuesday of 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., in their Health Info Reception Point (PAIS).
They are volunteers, not health professionals, but “ trained to listen and deliver the best possible information in relation to each person’s situation », underlines the first. They also received approval from the Regional Health Agency to carry out screenings.
HIV today, hepatitis C and syphilis tomorrow. Via a TROD, or rapid diagnostic orientation test, a drop of blood is taken from the tip of the finger and analyzed on site in real time. With the pre- and post-screening interviews, the whole process lasts around twenty minutes, is anonymous, free and confidential.
Xavier Villain also hopes to encourage the public to become involved in their health, especially as sexually transmitted infections are on the rise again. “ There is a trivialization, people no longer pay attention. They are afraid of AIDS, less of STIs. »
“The State doesn’t do it, so we have to”
How did the association come to offer this service to users? “ The State doesn’t do it, so we have to », summarizes the person concerned. However, CeGIDDs exist (free information, screening and diagnosis centers), including at Arras hospital, which carry out prevention, screening and treatment missions. “ We carry out a complementary activity, we systematically refer back to them but we wanted to offer a tool for free exchange outside the hospital environment, for those who do not dare to contact the white coats. » Implied: for fear of discrimination, felt or proven.
Fiertés Pas-de-Calais hopes to obtain subsidies because for the moment, the office only survives on donations of materials from private laboratories. In one year, around a hundred screenings were carried out.
