Sex Workers as Safe Sex Advocates: Sex Workers Protect Both Themselves and the Wider Community From HIV

Sex Workers Who Provide Services to Clients with Disability in New South Wales, Australia

“…These include both physical and emotional services as reflected by the additional comments pertaining to personal intimacy, cuddling and conversation and company. These also reflect current empirical literature where the sex workers interviewed clearly identified that, alongside sexual activities, services offered to clients included many therapeutic and emotional dimensions (Bates & Berg, 2014;Hartley, 2000; Section 4 Figure 7. Respondents indicated that their clients initially located them through a number of avenues as outlined by Table 10 received from participants of workshops Touching Base delivers for both sex workers and disability organisational staff, has indicated that the 'mock phone call' segment is a valuable teaching point in the day.…”

“…The positive influence of sex workers as safer sex educators and the roles they may play in regards to alleviating loneliness, being adjunct counsellors, increasing levels of happiness and giving their clients a safe and respectful environment to explore their sexual expression is beginning to emerge (Bates & Berg, 2014;Hartley, 2000;. Positive aspects of why sex workers choose this occupation (including autonomy, flexibility of hours and freedom from the rigors of stereotypical job demands) and what, apart from financial gain, they get out of their work (increased negotiation and boundary setting skills, opportunities for travel, job satisfaction and personal happiness) has also added to the ongoing acquisition of knowledge and understanding (Bernstein, 2007;Durocher, 2015;Lucas, 2005).…”

Community-Based Responses to Negative Health Impacts of Sexual Humanitarian Anti-Trafficking Policies and the Criminalization of Sex Work and Migration in the US

“…Due to its success, the program grew and covered the entire Kolkata area by utilizing thousands of peer educators (Cornish and Campbell 2009). In Australia, a number of sex worker-led outreach organizations have continued to receive state funding since the mid 1980s, and their role in promoting health amongst sex workers has been widely acknowledged (Bates and Berg 2014). In New Zealand, the New Zealand Prostitute Collective (NZPC) was offered government health funds to run prevention programs in 1987 and is a leading organization in providing health and rights support for sex workers (Healy et al 2010).…”

‘We didn’t have to dance around it’: opt-out HIV testing among homeless and marginalised patients

“…New HIV infections peaked in Australia in 1987 and decreased steadily until 1999 (The Kirby Institute 2014), largely due to the success of needle syringe programs, preventing an explosion of infections among injecting drug users (Madden and Wodak 2014). Decriminalisation of the sex industry and empowerment of sex workers has also contributed to Australia's low HIV prevalence (Bates and Berg 2014). HIV prevention initiatives, particularly school-based youth education campaigns, were instrumental in decreasing risk behaviours (Jones and Mitchell 2014).…”