A community–based HIV stigma reduction and wellness enhancement intervention for people living with HIV and their partners
Abstract
The positive diagnosis of HIV impacts the lives and the relationships of both people living and HIV and AIDS (PLHA) and their partners. This could be the result of the PLHA experiencing stigmatisation from the side of his or her partner, or associated stigmatisation experienced by the partner due to living with the PLHA. The literature review makes it clear that limited research has been conducted on interventions to reduce HIV stigma in PLHA and their partners and this subsequently forms the focus of this study.
The study describes the effect of a community-based HIV stigma reduction intervention on PLHA and their partners through a case study method. In addition, it explores and describes the lived experiences of these two groups during and after an intervention in both an urban and a rural setting of the North West Province, South Africa.
A qualitative holistic multiple case study design and interpretive descriptive approach through in-depth interviews was used to implement and evaluate the intervention. Purposive voluntary sampling was conducted to access PLHA, and snowball sampling to reach their partners. The case record included multiple sources. Document analysis and open coding was used for analysis of the case records and open coding for the in-depth interviews.
No real differences were noted between the urban and rural groups. It was evident from both the case study and the expressed experiences of participants that the intervention was successful. Follow-up interventions with PLHA and partners are suggested, as well as implementations that involve other cultural groups in other provinces of South-Africa. Such implementations could be useful to evaluate the sustainability of the intervention in various cultural groups. The intervention could further be included in educational programmes offered in health care settings or NGO‘s to nurses, health care workers and volunteers to train people in HIV-stigma reduction programmes.
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- Health Sciences [2061]