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Tiko bulabula – supporting the health and wellbeing of people living with HIV – centres on a critical challenge in the Pacific HIV response: why people fall out of care, and what it takes to keep them engaged. As HIV becomes an increasingly chronic, manageable condition, attention must shift beyond diagnosis and treatment to sustained retention in care, including mental health, wellbeing, and management of co-morbidities.

This session brings together diverse perspectives to explore these issues in depth. Keynote speakers will share insights from lived experience, mental health and counselling practice, and program implementation across Pacific settings. Together, they will highlight the complex and interrelated factors that influence engagement in care, including stigma, mental health challenges, service accessibility, and continuity of support.

The second half of the session will shift to an interactive workshop, where participants will work in small groups to translate evidence and experience into practical, context-specific solutions. With a strong focus on reducing loss to follow-up, integrating mental health into HIV care, and strengthening support for women and prevention of mother-to-child transmission, this session aims to generate actionable strategies that can be adapted and applied across diverse Pacific contexts.