Rates of drug use remain substantially higher among gay and bisexual men (GBM) and people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The use of drugs to enhance sexual pleasure within cultures of Party and Play creates opportunities to discuss sexual health, mental health, consent and wellbeing. Community organisations with a history of HIV prevention, care, treatment are well-placed to respond. ACON's (formerly the AIDS Council of New South Wales) multi-dimensional response to 'chemsex' includes: direct client services support for individuals seeking to manage or reduce their use; health promotion activities that support peer education; partnerships with research institutions to better understand cultures of chemsex; and policy submissions that call for drug use to be approached as a health, rather than a criminal, issue. The approach speaks the language of Party and Play subcultures; employs culturally relevant terminology and imagery; uses content designed, created and delivered by peers; and operates within a pleasure-positive, harm-reduction and community-led framework. These interventions have led to increased service uptake, strong community engagement, robust research partnerships and the recognition of GBM as a priority population in relevant strategies.

To evaluate the impact of government HIV strategies that aimed to increase HIV testing uptake and frequency among gay and bisexual men (GBM) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. DesignWe analysed HIV testing data from existing passive and sentinel surveillance systems between 2010 and 2018. MethodsSix indicators were measured: (1) state-wide total HIV laboratory tests; (2) number of GBM attending publicly-funded clinics; (3) 12-monthly testing uptake; (4) annual testing frequency; (5) HIV testing with a STI diagnosis; and (6) HIV positivity. Mathematical modelling was used to estimate (7) the proportion of men with undiagnosed HIV. Indicators were stratified by Australian vs. overseas-born.

Objective : To use existing evaluation data of community‐based HIV prevention peer education workshops (PEWs) for gay men to explore the challenges in evaluating such programs in community settings. Methods : Data came from 33 PEWs conducted with gay and bisexual men. A basic pre/post‐test design was used to measure sexual health capacity. The Sexual Health Capacity Scale (SHCS) was anonymously completed before participation and twice afterward, with the men measuring perceptions of themselves before participation and perceptions of themselves after participation. The anonymous nature of the SHCS created problems for matching data so, for the most part, independent samples tests were used for analysis. Results : Overall, 399 gay and bisexual men participated in PEWs. Participants perceived themselves as having more sexual health capacity after participation than before (p<0.001). Those who had previously been HIV tested before the PEW had higher perceived capacity (p<0.001). Conclusions and Implications : Participation in the PEWs appeared to increase the perceived sexual health capacity of gay and bisexual male participants. Several limitations in the data arose from issues in the original data collection. A mixture of anonymous and identifiable data‐sources meant that data could not always be matched to individuals. Stronger partnerships between HIV researchers and professionals within community organisations could significantly improve evaluation of the effectiveness of HIV peer education.

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