Edinburgh and Lothian HIV/AIDS collections

The HIV/AIDS Management Team was formed in response to the high rate of HIV infection in Edinburgh and the Lothians. Quick, decisive action was required to try to control the spread of the virus, one of these measures being major advances in health promotion initiatives. Dr George Bath was given the responsibility of managing the HIV/AIDS Management Team, who reported to the Chief Administrative Medical Officer (later known as the Director of Public Health) Dr Helen Zealley.

The Crusaid charity was founded in 1986, offering support for a better quality of life to HIV-positive individuals in response to the poverty and stigma which often followed from the diagnosis. Adults and children were able to benefit from a variety of grants and innovative projects. The charity also supported research into treatment and possible vaccination against HIV. In association with the Terence Higgins Trust, Crusaid set up the National Hardship Fund, which gave financial help to those living with the virus. In June 2010, a significant budget cut saw Crusaid merge with the Terence Higgins Trust and adopt their branding. The records in this collection relate to Crusaid Scotland, a Scottish division of the charity, which was formed in 1988. Along with Crusaid in the rest of the UK, it ceased to operate after the merger with the Terrence Higgins Trust in 2010. The Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland continues to operate a Crusaid Hardship Fund.

The Take Care campaign began in the late 1980s in response to high statistics of HIV and AIDS cases in Edinburgh and the Lothians. The campaign intended to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS amongst all communities and involved advertising, events, and education. This ground-breaking, and at times controversial, awareness-raising campaign was jointly launched by Lothian Health Board and Lothian Regional Council. This collection thoroughly documents the entire campaign and includes a wealth of publicity material, an impressive reminder of the visual aspect of the response to HIV and AIDS.

Operational, administrative and correspondence files of the Lothian Regional AIDS Team, later known as the Lothian Health Board HIV/AIDS and Drugs Team, form this collection.  It includes minutes and papers of various committees that document the individual and joint responses of the Lothian Health Board, the Lothian Regional Council, charities and campaign groups to HIV/AIDS.  It also includes the Team’s library, an extensive collection of grey literature relating to HIV/AIDS, and copies of Meridian (1989-1995), the Team’s newsletter, which provides information on every aspect of HIV/AIDS as it occurred in Edinburgh.  The collection was transferred to LHSA in 2001 direct from NHS Lothian.

Dr Helen Zealley was the Director of Public Health (DPH) - also known as the Chief Administrative Medical Officer (CAMO) - of Lothian Health Board (LHB), which later became NHS Lothian. Her papers were collected or created throughout her role as DPH, from the 1970s until she retired in 2000, covering an array of subjects relating to top level LHB management activities. Although the collection is not solely related to HIV/AIDS, there is a significant part of the collection that documents Helen Zealley’s involvement as DPH in all aspects of the response to HIV/AIDS within Lothian. This collection is significant for the overview it provides of HIV/AIDS responses within public health policy and practice across the whole region. There does not appear to be another similar collection held anywhere in the UK. 

The organisation now named Waverley Care started as a Lothian Regional Council initiative called the AIDS Residential Accommodation Trust in 1989. Responsibility for the organisation of Trust meetings rested with the Regional Secretary’s Department and trustees included the Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh, the Chairman of Lothian Health Board and the Bishop of Edinburgh. Working with the Milestone Venture Trust, Waverley Care was responsible for the establishment of a hospice for people living with AIDS called Milestone House.

This collection includes agenda and committee papers of the Edinburgh Drug Action Team formed by Lothian Health Board; the Regional Council departments of social work, housing and education; Lothian and Borders Police; HM Prison Service in Edinburgh and the Coalition of Voluntary Drug Agencies.  Papers relate to the establishment of a combined drugs strategy with particular focus on drug misuse and the spread of HIV/AIDS.

World AIDS Day Organising Committee (Lothian) was an Edinburgh-based organisation set up in November 1999. The aim of the organisation was to advance the education of the public, particularly in relation to World AIDS Day and HIV and AIDS issues. WADOC operated until June 2006, when the dissolution of the organisation became official, after it was felt the charity had served its purpose in promoting and educating the public on the issues surrounding HIV and AIDS.

This collection encompasses papers collected by the Save the Children Scotland office relating to HIV/AIDS, such as press cuttings, articles and a Save the Children Scotland AIDS information pack. The material provides an insight into the response of a major children’s charity to the rise of HIV/AIDS.

This collection includes papers collected by the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Social Work Department relating to HIV/AIDS, for example articles, leaflets and other printed material. It documents the concerns of a specialist department with links to the Lothian Health Board and Lothian Regional Council.

A collection of highly visual postcards, the majority of which originated in the United States of America. It provides an international dimension to the campaign to fight HIV/AIDS and complements the promotional material held in the Take Care Campaign collection (GD22).

This collection holds the programme for the George Bath Memorial Lecture and HIV Seminar, held in May 2005. George Bath was Lothian Health Board’s (LHB) first HIV/AIDS Coordinator and leader of the LHB HIV/AIDS Management Team (LHB45).

A collection of grey literature relating to HIV/AIDS and sexual health, which complements other material on the topic held by LHSA.

Before her retirement in 2011, Dr Jacqueline Mok was a Paediatric Consultant for Community Child Health, Lothian Health Board, and was a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Children's Health. Her research has mainly focused on HIV and AIDS in infants and children, with a particular focus on mother-to-child transmission. She has worked extensively on research for HIV therapies that are not only safe for children, but also for expectant mothers. Her research has expanded beyond HIV-infected children to include HIV-affected children: those who have mothers who are HIV positive. Dr Mok started a clinic for HIV-infected children at the City Hospital in the mid-1980s, the first such family clinic in the UK. The clinic moved from its space at the City Hospital and was granted use of Ward 8 (Ward for Infectious Diseases) at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

Dr. Greenwood became a general practitioner (GP) in London and Oxford from 1962 to 1974, and moved to Edinburgh in 1976. She was appointed a fellow in community psychiatry (at senior registrar grade) based in Craigmillar in 1979. Dr.Greenwood volunteered to be the medical consultant legally required to be present at needle exchanges in Leith Hospital outpatient department at the height of the HIV crisis in Edinburgh in the 1980s. Although needle exchange allowed HIV to decrease, Greenwood began to realise that exchanges were not enough to limit the spread of the virus. As a result, she was appointed as a Drug Consultant in 1988, founding the Local AIDS Group with a group of Muirhouse-based GPs in the same year. Dr Greenwood was also on the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs in 1993. She retired in 1997.

Positive Help was founded by the Scottish Episcopal Church on January 1st, 1989, and is still active as an independent charitable organisation. The project is based in Edinburgh and aims to support those living with HIV and their families with everyday tasks - such as travel to hospital appointments, gardening, and babysitting. Positive Help also runs trips for children with the help of highly trained volunteers.