The New Social Worker Vol. 19, No. 3, Summer 2012 | Page 17
People of color continue to be at a disproportionate greater risk of being infected
with HIV/AIDS. Lack of health insurance,
inadequate medical attention, general poor
health, and little or no access to proper
education contribute directly to increased
infection rates among these populations,
representing a negatively increasing trend
in new HIV infections. As social workers
continue to develop cultural competency,
complex psychosocial factors continue to
evolve as HIV spreads across the globe.
Working with people of color, I
have come to understand that social
workers in my field are faced with not
only working with the medical aspect
of HIV/AIDS, but with other, just as
powerful, forces that can create huge
gaps in accessing medical and social
services. Some of these forces include
racism, discrimination, genocide, and
ignorance.
Sometimes these forces can cause a
patient to become ambivalent about his
or her medical care, and this may result in
poor adherence to medication regimens. A
common problem I have seen with patients
(not just people of color) is that they stop
taking their medication because it may
remind them of their illness, and somehow
by taking the medication, they are admitting
they are HIV-positive and/or have AIDS.
To combat poor adherence, I help patients
explore their fears about HIV, the impact
of disclosing their HIV status with people in
their immediate social circles, the influence
of religion/folk/cultural beliefs, and ultimately encourage patients to establish support networks (either personal or through
agencies), utilizing individual therapy and
groups as a tool to network with other
people who may share similar experiences.
Motivational interviewing can be a useful intervention with people struggling with
medication adherence and safer sex practices. As I attempt to work with a patient
who is ambivalent about behavior changes,
I often think, “Is the patient able to understand core concepts I am trying to teach? Is
he or she able to reflect upon the positive
and negative attributes of the choices being
made? How can I reframe the message I
am attempting to convey in a way that the
patient can relate to? What are the patient’s
strengths and weaknesses? Does the patient
advocate for other people? If so, how? How
has the patient managed ambivalence in the
past?”
HIV/AIDS is an exciting field that is
constantly changing as medicine evolves.
It will challenge social workers to understand complex psychosocial factors, societal
stigmatization, and human injustice, and
encourage advocacy on mezzo and macro
levels, including advocacy on multi-tiered
levels as government funding for HIV/
AIDS programs is reduced. It will also encourage social workers to help patients navigate bureaucratic systems while recognizing
individuality, self-respect, and self-worth.
For further information, please visit:
http://www.thebody.com
http://www.thebodypro.com
http://aids.gov
http://avert.org
http://www.aidsinfo.nih.gov
http://www.poz.com
Joe Vanny Pérez, LMSW,
has worked as a social
worker at the Center
for Special Studies/NYPresbyterian Hospital for
five years, focusing on HIV/
AIDS. He holds a master’s
degree in social work from
New York University and a B.A. in sociology and art history from Hunter College-City
University of New York. In 1990-1991, Mr.
Pérez served in Operation Desert Storm as
part of a United States Army unit embedded
in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
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