Service Relationships
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PROGRAMS AND SERVICES MANUAL
POLICY
SERVICE RELATIONSHIPS
The AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT) engages in a variety of relationships and interactions with individuals and groups in the community. The 1996 Strategic Plan identifies four kinds and degrees of service delivery:
- Information provision, and assessment and referral for all people infected with or affected by HIV and AIDS.
- Direct service to individuals within specific communities.
- Direct service to specific communities.
- Collaboration with other AIDS service organizations (ASOs) and service providers.
For the purpose of policy, ACT prefers the term "service user" to that of "client". We acknowledge that there is no perfect term and each one brings some advantage and disadvantage. As much as possible, we adopt community language.
Although "service user" is a practical term when discussing policy, ACT recognizes that no single term can identify the variety of interactions. The nature of the context usually defines the term used on a day to day basis, for example, a counsellor sees a "client", someone becomes a support group "member", and an outreach worker hands a condom pack to a "contact". These are arbitrary terms applied to dynamic, changing relationships. People in the community who interact with ACT also see their interaction in a variety of ways and these terms may or may not have any meaning to them. ACT believes that what is most important is the nature and quality of the interaction.
ACT strives to work with people to foster independence and self-determination. ACT recognizes that both the service provider and the service user bring valuable expertise and experience into the relationship.
Service users may use one or more programs; their interaction with ACT may be one-time, periodic or ongoing. Interactions vary according to program and within programs. Some programs serve a narrow geographic area, some programs respond to a wider range of people (infected and affected), another program is targeted (gay men and men who have sex with men). For some programs, identifying information is needed to participate (buddy program), for other programs, no identifying information is needed (using the Library's
reference collection).
Service relationships are developed with:
Individuals: Service users may be individual members of the community infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.
Service providers: Individual service providers may themselves be service users. Program examples include Library and Referral Services.
Organizations: Service users may be groups of people, clubs, other non-profit organizations and for profit corporations/businesses, ASOs, etc. This is distinct from any partner relationship that we have with these organizations. Program examples include Referral Services, Policy Consultation, Resource Materials and Training.
Communities: ACT serves communities through community-building strategies, such as confronting homophobia. One program example is the annual Pride Week ACT Education Campaign.
OUTREACH
Most interactions in outreach are initiated by ACT. In the Gay Men's Outreach Program:
- the term contact is used for brief interactions such as an individual accepting a condom pack.
- the term significant contact is used for interactions that are initiated by the individual or outreach worker that involve responding to a question or providing information.
INTERNET
The term hit refers to the contact people make with the website and its components such as a connection to the Library database.
