World AIDS day about awareness, battling stigmas: HIV project coordinator

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According to Lindgren, a big issue is awareness, especially in the province.

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“It’s often seen as ‘oh that won’t ever happen to me’ or ‘that’s something that’s happening in a different part of the world’ or even amongst Canada it’s never seen to be something that’s affecting us locally,” Lindgren said.

However, Lindgren expressed that it is something that hits close to home.

“In Saskatchewan we have the highest rates of HIV in the country right now. We’re almost two times the national average of HIV. Part of that is we actually are just starting to find out who has HIV and how it’s passed, so people aren’t really aware because it’s still a very distant thing to people and people don’t seem have a connection to it,” Lindgren said.

To prevent HIV and AIDS, the Battlefords Family Health Centre is pushing people to get tested regularly, no matter their sexual history or age.

“We really want people to start being tested more regularly, and that means everybody, not just young people or people in their late teens and 20s, that means everybody.”

Newly elected to city council, Lindgren said that his new role in politics might hopefully shine a light on the resources available.

“I’m not sure how that will work with city council quite yet, but I’m hopeful that that’s something that might come out of this,” he said. “It might bring some positive light towards the initiatives that we do and the work that we do in this community.”

Katherine.svenkeson@jpbg.ca

@ksvenkeson