maincheck – Center for Sexuality, Identity und Health

maincheck, the centre for sexuality, identity and health, is the first point of contact for people with the following concerns:

• Coming out counselling
• Questions about sexuality and identity
• Questions about health education and testing (sexually transmitted infections)
• Fertility counselling for LGBTIQ+ people
• Questions related to HIV and AIDS
• Crisis intervention

LGBTIQ+ people face unique questions and challenges due to their lifelong confrontation with the issues of gender experiences and/or sexuality, the answers to which require an individually tailored offer.

The basis of this service is formed by three pillars:

1. Psychosocial counselling and therapy

2. Information, prevention and further education

3. STI tests, medical counselling and care (in the form of cooperation with local doctors). The maincheck is open to all interested groups of people.

The maincheck thus represents an easy to access contact point for the holistic care of LGBTIQ+ people, an extraordinary and innovative project in Hesse. The long-term interlocking of psychosocial and medical-care elements creates care from a single source, without long distances and long waiting times which is specified to the needs of the target group.

The maincheck combines services that have long been part of the AHF's core competence; specifically, maincheck offers counselling for LGBTIQ+ people on identity, sexuality, relationships and family, as well as anonymous testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. This takes into account the diverse developments in society (for example, the legal equality of same-sex relationships). An accepting and target group oriented approach offers a counselling framework for people who would often not seek help in other counselling centres, or who do not yet have another service that is specifically tailored to their unique needs. Other services on offer revolve around prevention and self-care or substance use and addiction. In addition, there is an open consultation hour from Monday to Friday from 1 to 2 pm - here short-term crises in connection with sexuality or in the area of social security can be clarified and further steps can be agreed upon. Appointments can also be booked online (see links below).

Every Monday and Thursday, the anonymous test offer maincheck_up takes place from 5 to 7 pm. Here people have the opportunity to be tested for HIV and STIs. Pre-registration or an appointment are not necessary. Further information can be found on the official homepage (see links below).

These services are supplemented by various group services, such as the HIV-positive women's group; MSM-ChemSex; youngstar+, for young people up to 27 who live with an HIV infection; as well as the Frankfurt Lectures, the monthly lecture series on the topics of HIV, sexuality and health.