<p>People's attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS remain a major community challenge. There is a need to generate a climate of understanding, compassion and dignity in which people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) will be able to voluntarily disclose their status and receive the support and respect all people deserve. However, many people expereince discrimination because they have HIV/AIDS. In a certain area in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, a young woman was killed after disclosing the HIV status after being raped by five men. While many previous studies have focused on the external stigma in the general population, there is a dearth of studies on stigma among PLWHA themselves and hence the aim of the present study was to investigate stigma attached to HIV/AIDS from the perspective of PLWHA.</p>

<p>People's attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS remain a major community challenge. There is a need to generate a climate of understanding, compassion and dignity in which people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) will be able to voluntarily disclose their status and receive the support and respect all people deserve. However, many people expereince discrimination because they have HIV/AIDS. In a certain area in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, a young woman was killed after disclosing the HIV status after being raped by five men. While many previous studies have focused on the external stigma in the general population, there is a dearth of studies on stigma among PLWHA themselves and hence the aim of the present study was to investigate stigma attached to HIV/AIDS from the perspective of PLWHA.</p>

This study investigated the attitudes of mental health counselors toward persons with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Three hundred and fifty-eight members of the American Mental Health Counselors Association were mailed a survey packet including an Attitude Towards AIDS Victims scale and an additional two questions assessing comfort with clients with AIDS. Demographic information was also collected. There were 255 useable surveys, for a response rate of 72%. The results of the survey indicated that gender was not a significant independent variable in the attitudes of the mental health counselors. Professional and/or personal contacts with a person with AIDS were highly predictive of positive attitudes. Sexual orientation of the respondent was also highly significant as was personal acquaintance with a gay male or lesbian. Formal AIDS training of one hour or more showed a significant relationship with attitudes of mental health counselors toward persons with AIDS, with the relationship becoming more significant at 11 or more hours. The study indicated that mental health counselors are largely uninvolved in providing mental health treatment to persons with AIDS, with 5% of the subjects providing 70% of the services. Recommendations follow regarding preservice and inservice AIDS training and the need for mental health counselors to be more proactive in the AIDS epidemic. / Graduation date: 1996

Magister Artium - MA / People's attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS remain a major community challenge. There is a need to generate a climate of understanding, compassion and dignity in which people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) will be able to voluntarily disclose their status and receive the support and respect all people deserve. However, many people expereince discrimination because they have HIV/AIDS. In a certain area in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, a young woman was killed after disclosing the HIV status after being raped by five men. While many previous studies have focused on the external stigma in the general population, there is a dearth of studies on stigma among PLWHA themselves and hence the aim of the present study was to investigate stigma attached to HIV/AIDS from the perspective of PLWHA. / South Africa

A sample of 227 undergraduate students was administered pre-intervention paper-and-pencil questionnaires to assess homophobia, fear of AIDS contagion, symbolic representations of AIDS and homosexuality, and specific personality attributes including authoritarianism, religiosity, and conservatism. Participants then read one of eight intervention vignettes about an ill person; these vignettes varied by sexual orientation of the patient, disease (AIDS versus lung cancer), and mode of transmission (in the AIDS conditions). Participants then completed post-intervention measures assessing the degree to which the ill person in the vignette was responsible and to blame for his illness, the level of stigma toward him, and concerns about social interactions with him. Results indicate the following: a) Attributions of personal responsibility are primarily a function of mode of illness transmission; b) fear of AIDS contagion is predictive of stigma and social avoidance of PWAs; and c) AIDS-related stigma and attributions of blame are largely a function of symbolic associations between homosexuality and IV drug abuse (which were previously stigmatized) and AIDS.

No description available.

The main purpose of this study was to examine nurses' attitudes toward caring for patients with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The study also compared the attitudes of nurses who had cared for AIDS patients with the attitudes of nurses who had not cared for AIDS patients. Educational background was also examined to see if education influences attitudes. The Ajzen-Fishbein Model of Reasoned Action was the framework used for this study.A descriptive design was used for the purpose of gaining more information regarding nurses' attitudes toward caring for patients with AIDS. A random sample of all registered nurses in the state of Indiana was used for this study. The data obtained were analyzed using frequency distributions, independent t-tests, and analysis of variance.Nurses in general are sill uncomfortable with caring for AIDS patients. Between 40% and 50% of nurses are fearful of contracting the AIDS virus and fearful of putting their family at risk. On the other hand, approximately the same percentage are comfortable caring for AIDS patients. Furthermore, nurses believe that health care agencies should care for AIDS patients, but believe that nurses should have the right to refuse to care for AIDS patients.Results of this study indicated that educational background does not influence nurses' attitudes toward caring for patients with AIDS. However, as nurses have more experience caring for patients with AIDS, they appear to develop more positive attitudes. / School of Nursing

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007. / Additional advisors: Gypsy Abbott, Lois M. Christensen, Lynn D. Kirkland, Maryann Manning. Description based on contents viewed Feb. 6, 2008; title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-104).

Magister Artium - MA / This research explored cultural perceptions of HIV & AIDS with students at the University of the Western Cape and attempted to understand how these perceptions of the disease reinforce stigma and stigmatising attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS. This study investigated HIV/AIDS stigma as a social phenomenon and analysed the socio-cultural and historical roots of HIV/AIDS stigma. / South Africa

This research explored cultural perceptions of HIV&amp / AIDS with students at the University of the Western Cape and attempted to understand how these perceptions of the disease reinforce stigma and stigmatising attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS. This study investigated HIV/AIDS stigma as a social phenomenon and analysed the socio-cultural and historical roots of HIV/AIDS stigma.