How self-testing has CONNECTed with the community

CONNECT is the first federally-funded project of its kind in Australia — dispensing HIV self-test kits to support rapid HIV testing and to strengthen pathways to treatment and support.

Since launching in March 2022 with five vending machines on university campuses and sex-on-premises venues, we’ve seen over 500 registered users and more than 550 kits dispensed.

While the target groups for the CONNECT project are men who have sex with men (in particular from non-English speaking backgrounds), usage data as of July this year shows that 45% of users are overseas born. Additionally, 46% of users identify as heterosexual.

CONNECT Project Coordinator Nikki Sullivan has been surprised most by the enthusiasm from young people engaging with the project.

“I had assumed that for many young people, HIV was something they thought happened a long time ago, was no longer an issue, and had no relevance to them or their lives. My view of that has really changed,” she said.

“University students are keen to take control of their sexual health and that they see testing as one of the ways to do that.”

Nikki has also been taken aback to hear at community venues and via survey responses how many people aren’t practicing safe sex.

“There’s a proportion of people who in the follow up survey have told us they have condomless sex, and a number are not on PrEP. In fact, I’m really surprised by the number of people I’ve spoken to when out doing SAMESH outreach who don’t know anything about PrEP or PEP.”

While the project’s target groups included culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) people, Nikki hopes to see the pilot lead to future initiatives that target other vulnerable communities.

“CONNECT doesn’t engage some at risk communities such as homeless people, prisoners, First Nations people, and those in regional and remote areas,” she said.

“I would like to see the further development of rapid testing initiatives that tries to address this.”

Find out more about CONNECT at hivconnect.org.au.