COMMUNITY COUNSELLING

-HIV PATIENTS

DONE BY

REVATHI MOHAN

2’nd Year Masters in Counselling Psychology

OBJECTIVE

To provide psycho social support

To prevent transmission of HIV infection

To provide quality of life

To provide risk assessment

WHY COUNSELLING

Infection with HIV is long

To cope with HIV positive status

To adjust and to learn about change in life style

inorder to reduce the risk of contracting HIV

infection

WHAT THEY ACTUALLY WANT…..

HISTORY

The story of HIV/AIDS would have been written

differently because there was no cure, no hope

More people died than necessary

There was no short-cut and no easy path

FIND OUT WHAT PEOPLE WANT…

Wanted to die: At Home,

NOT in the hospital

Explains why people want

to die at home

Preparation for transfer of

counseling model from

case management to

community counseling

Offer by donors to build a

hospice turned down

PATIENTS WANT TO DIE AT HOME;

NOT IN HOSPITAL……

At home they are in familiar

surroundings

At home they are surrounded

by loved ones

At home the loved ones can

watch over their sick ones and

also do field work

At home, all the extended family

members can come at any time

WHY COMMUNITY COUNSELING WORKS

Provides space for people to identify themselves as a community

Allows people of various tribes (ethnic groups), age, and gender to think together

Provides safe spaces for community members to speak their minds

Provides a place where people cannot be “wrong”

Provides a place where every voice counts

Provides a place where people can laugh at themselves without feeling ashamed

Provides spaces for community to process what is going on

Creates space for community members to be accountable to one another by mutual agreement

Helps community to look HIV/AIDS in the face: the stigma, the loss, the orphans, the widows, the faith, and so on

HOW COMMUNITY COUNSELING WORKS

Based on relationship

Trained facilitators enter relationship with community

They help community to begin a journey together

They into community is by invitation, recognizing role of community leadership

Entry is preceded by enrollment of leaders, explaining why this journey is important

They use a strategic framework built solidly on relationship

The framework for community counseling begins with relationship building, extends into problem identification, exploration, action, and review

SPECIAL COUNSELLING SITUATIONS

Pregnant mother

Childless couple

Breast feeding mother

Spouse and family members of HIV infected

persons