By: Jennifer McMillen Smith, LISW-S, HIV Social Worker at MetroHealth Medical Center and medically reviewed by Ann K. Avery, MD, Infectious Disease Physician at MetroHealth Medical Center
If you’ve just been checkin’ out our blog or following us on social media, you might not know that there is also a Positive Peers app.
The Positive Peers app is designed for young people who are living with HIV in the greater Cleveland area to find support, track their health, and access resources in a private, secure environment. Sometimes, young people who are living with HIV struggle to stay on their treatment plan. But our goal is to empower you to crush it every step of the way — and we believe our app can help.
Are you ready to rock your HIV management?
Find support
Anyone who’s living with HIV will tell you that having a supportive community can be a huge factor in staying healthy physically, spiritually, and mentally. That’s why we’re such huge fans of support groups.
Bad days don’t always come at convenient times — like just in time for your support group meeting. But being a Positive Peers member is like having a 24/7 support group in the palm of your hand. You’ll have access to dozens of young people just like you who know what it’s like to live with HIV.
We have community message boards and in-app messaging, so you can talk as a group or privately to individual members. Got a question? Want to share your story? Ready to give support to someone who needs it? Our Positive Peers community is a great place to do it.
Come join our private, stigma-free, supportive community.
Health management tools with medication & appointment reminders.
Social networking in a community conversation & private chats.
Track your health
When you’re living with HIV, it’s a great idea to make your health a priority — and the Positive Peers app helps you do that!
Have trouble remembering to take your meds? The app’s daily reminders will help you stay on track.
You can also keep track of your latest CD4 and viral load test results. (Not sure what those mean? Click here to learn more!)
The app lets you track how often you exercise (work it gurl, work it!), when your next doctor’s appointment is, and reminds you of your next support group meeting.
Access resources
No matter what your situation is, know that you’re not alone. There are people, organizations, and resources available to help.
Our resources page (which is available to everyone, even if you’re not an app user) has a great list of healthcare providers, social workers, legal assistance, addiction services, housing assistance, support groups, and more. For our app users, you can email or call your doctor or social worker with the touch of your thumb!
How to register for the Positive Peers app
We would love to welcome each and every one of you into our little Positive Peers family, but for right now, we can’t.
Here’s the deal. Positive Peers is funded by a grant from the federal government, and our program is part of a larger clinical study that will see if the app helps improve users’ health. (Click here to learn a bit more about that.) That means that we have to have some control over who gets to register.
You are able to enroll in the Positive Peers app if you are:
- Living with HIV (obviously)
- Living in the greater Cleveland area (#TheLand)
- Between the ages of 13 and 34
- A patient at MetroHealth (Not currently getting healthcare? That’s ok. Come see us!)
So, you checked each one of those off the list — ready to join? Shoot us an email at positivepeers@metrohealth.org or give Josh a call at 216-778-8137. We’ll schedule an appointment so you can come in and get set up with the app. We know that sounds like a lot to go through for an app — but we promise it’s worth it. 😉 And we know your time is valuable, so we’ll compensate you for it too!
And hey, if you don’t qualify yet, just stay tuned. We hope to open the app up to the greater HIV community in the future. 🙂
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