Promoting the well-being and quality of life of people living with HIV is central to NAT's work. NAT campaigns for more effective prevention, early testing, better treatment and support, an end to stigma and discrimination and more involvement of people living with HIV in their health and social care.

There are many opportunities for people living with HIV to influence health and social care. These range from becoming actively involved with your clinician in the decisions relating to your own treatment and care, to becoming an advocate for more effective planning and delivery of local HIV services, as part of your primary care trust patients' forum.

This involvement is known as Positive People's Involvement, (PPI) (and sometimes as Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV and AIDS - GIPA).

PPI is not simply an optional extra but the fundamental human right of people living with HIV. This is affirmed in a number of historic declarations, such as the Paris AIDS Summit Declaration (1994), the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on AIDS (UNGASS) (2001) and the Dublin Declaration (2004).

Our guide to the needs of people living with HIV aims to inform those providing services of some the challenges and issues of concern.