Dissertation submitted to the FacuIty ofArts for the Masters degree in Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, 1997. / This report documents a qualitative description of the special needs expressed by persons with late stage AIDS in the Richards Bay area. A phenomenological research design and methods were employed to impose rigour on this event. Once the needs of persons with late stage AIDS had been made explicit, these were collated with services rendered or planned through state and welfare structures in the Richards Bay area in an effort to identify salient unfulfilled needs that could be addressed through the establishment of an AIDS Care Centre. This provided important cues regarding the types of services and facilities required at the AIDS Care Centre. Additionally the unstructured interviews employed in the research provided the interviewees with an opportunity to suggest a format of care at the AIDS Care Centre that would be most suitable for them.