Article Sidebar
Published:
Mar 20, 2008Keywords:
Article Details
The author(s) retain copyright on work published by AOSIS unless specified otherwise.
Licensing and publication rights
Author(s) of work published by AOSIS are required to grant AOSIS the unlimited rights to publish the definitive work in any format, language and medium, for any lawful purpose. AOSIS requires journal authors to publish their work in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the published article(s), provided attribution is given to the applicable journal with details of the original publication, as set out in the official citation of the article published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the article on the authors’ or their institution’s websites or in institutional repositories.
Previously published work may have been published under a different licence. We advise the community that if they would like to reuse the work to consult the applicable licence at article level.
Note: If you need to comply with your funding body policy, you can apply for the CC BY license after your manuscript is accepted for publication.
Main Article Content
A group work programme to support and empower non-professional caregivers of people living with AIDS
Abstract
According to a literature study and a research survey conducted in 2004, caregivers are increasingly forced to deal with people living with AIDS as health services are unable to cope with the fast-growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Caring for an individual with AIDS-related disease is usually time-consuming, burdensome and stressful. There is also
evidence of increased susceptibility to physical health problems, emotional distress and psychiatric disturbances amongst caregivers. There are a number of strategies that should be employed to ensure that caregivers are encouraged to do their work to the best of their ability, without them having to sacrifice their health, family life and own needs. One of the strategies that could help in this regard is the presentation of a group work programme. A
programme was presented to 14 female caregivers from a church in a disadvantaged community. The group met for eight consecutive weeks. During the two-hour sessions various topics, including self-knowledge, self-esteem, communication, conflict handling, roles of caregivers, and relationships with the person living with AIDS, were discussed.
The group members were subjected to measurement by means of the single system. According to this measurement and an evaluation questionnaire, the programme did succeed in supporting and empowering them as caregivers.
Keywords: people living with AIDS; empower; group work; non-professional caregivers; support
Health SA Gesondheid Vol. 11 (4) 2006: pp. 3-21
