NHS Forth Valley’s Viral Hepatitis Team recently received international recognition at the 2024 INHSU conference for Outstanding Contribution to Models of Care and Programmes for the STEP C Free Project.
The project shows that taking services out of traditional healthcare settings into local communities helps break down barriers and reach more people. The Viral Hepatitis Team and colleagues from Hepatitis C Trust, Change Grow Live and Transform Forth Valley have been innovative in delivering healthcare using the skills and experience of peers in community-based venues. They have demonstrated that this outreach approach addresses some of the barriers in treating harder–to-reach groups and those who don’t routinely access healthcare services in more traditional ways.
Established in 2009, the annual International Conference on Health and Hepatitis Care in Substance Users welcomes a diverse range of practitioners, researchers, policymakers, advocates, community members, and people with lived and living experience from all over the world who are invested in delivering healthcare to people affected by substance use.
