Professor Fiona Lyons:

Deputy Kenny talked about stigma just before Deputy Hourigan came in. There is no doubt that there is potentially quite a big stigma associated with having this infection for individuals in the gbMSM community. In looking after people who are at home, we phone them. In the beginning, we were phoning them every day to see how they were physically, and depending on how they were doing, we would phone them more frequently or less frequently. What became apparent very early on was that they had quite a lot of psychosocial support needs as well. That is why the HSE has funded psychosocial and psychological support for individuals who are experiencing monkeypox infection and the stigma or the social isolation associated with that. Through the MPOWER programme, individuals can provide their phone number and they will be contacted to avail of the service which is now funded by the HSE and run by peers within the community.