Prevalence and Coping Mechanisms Against Stigmatization Among HIV Patients Attending Pepfar Clinic in University of Benin Teaching Hospital Benin City
CHAPTER ONE
General Objectives
The general objective of the study was to explore experiences and coping mechanisms for HIV patients attending pepfar clinic in University of Benin Teaching Hospital.
Specific Objectives
- To explore adolescents’ feelings and experiences of being HIV positive at the community
- To understand the experiences of patients living with HIV with regard to HIV services and service provider.
- To explore the coping strategies used by patients living with
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This chapter reviewed literature presenting qualitative evidence on experiences and coping strategies for adolescents aged 10-19 living with HIV in Nigeria and elsewhere. There are two major themes which guided this review. The first theme was the experience that these adolescents had with regard to knowing and understanding their status. This helped in understanding how they experienced stigma and discrimination, social support, taking antiretroviral therapy and disclosure of their status. The other theme was the coping mechanisms which enabled them to endure their situation. Spiritual intervention, non-adherence, treatment, support and other relevant strategies were searched from literature.
Experiences of Patients living with HIV
Adolescent period is a challenging time and this is even more for patients living with HIV. Although children with HIV are living longer, healthier lives and reaching adolescence as a result of increased access to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), little has been done in Nigeria to examine how they feel about being HIV positive (Hodgson et al., 2012).
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This was a qualitative study. Adolescents aged 10 to 19 living with HIV and aware of their HIV status were purposively selected. In-depth interviews were used to gather data on their lived experiences and coping mechanisms, regardless of whether they are on ART or not.
Study Design
It was a phenomenological study which focused on the experiences of patients living with HIV. Phenomenology includes discovering, analysing, clarifying and seeking patterns of certain phenomena based on individual’s daily life experience. It emphasised on describing the meaning of several individual’s perceptions, feelings and lived experiences in order to have a deep understanding of the phenomena (Lewis, 2015). Respondents were given an opportunity to discuss the topic in their own words. A phenomenological approach was relevant for this study because its major focus was to describe and to understand lived experiences and coping strategies of patients living with HIV (Zulu et al., 2014).
CHAPTER FOUR
REASERCH FINDINGS
Introduction
This chapter explores the experiences and coping strategies of HIV patients attending pepfar clinic in University of Benin Teaching Hospital. It starts with a brief description of the participants followed by the presentation of the themes and sub-themes on experiences of patients living with HIV derived from the thematic analysis. In the presentation of the findings, verbatim quotations have been used to illustrate the themes and sub-themes.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSIONAND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
The study revealed that adolescents had different experiences. They had both favourable and unfavourable experiences. The favourable experiences of patients living with HIV with regard to accessing HIV services included encouragement from support group members, treatment which resulted in good health and support from health care providers. The unfavourable experiences adolescents had to endure were life-long treatment resulting to drug fatigue, stigmatisation, being denied to visit friends in fear of poor adherence, the provision of antiretroviral services during weekdays and school time when they were expected to be in class. Despite the negative experiences patients living with HIV were experiencing, they managed to cope with their situation by adopting strategies such as resilience, treatment, non-disclosure, spiritual intervention and the use of supportive systems. This helped them to live positively with their condition. Therefore, in order to effectively help adolescents cope with HIV, it is important to develop support networks or strategies that take a holistic approach, that is, focus or take into account the individual, group, family, community, and societal level dynamics, opportunities and strengths.
Recommendations
Below are recommendations categorised into two: government and health workers.
Recommendations for Government:
- Come up with a policy which will make it possible for Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) services to be provided during weekends and holidays so that school going children living with HIV can have free time to go to the clinic. Currently, the adolescents are expected to attend their clinical and pharmacy visits on Wednesdays when they are also expected to be in class.
- Design and implement effective disclosure strategies in order to equip health workers with disclosure skills.
Recommendations for Health Workers
- Strengthen their skills on disclosure strategies in order to help caregivers to disclose to adolescents effectively. Currently, caregivers are not equipped with adequate knowledge on how to disclose effectively to patients living with HIV under their care.
- Strengthen awareness programmes in order to promote confidentiality among care providers especially when third party disclosure is involved. This will help them to disclose to people who are rightly disposed to take care of the adolescents when need
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