Background: Research has shown that men who have sex with men (MSM) experience stigma, discrimination, negative and judgmental attitudes and homophobia when accessing health care services. This has resulted in limited uptake of existing HIV and AIDS services. Further, the experiences serve as barriers to seeking and accessing public primary health care services. Negative psychological outcomes and in unique cases, adverse mental health outcomes have resulted from these experiences. Aim: The study aimed to explore and describe the experiences of a sample of MSM when accessing public health care services in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM). Method: A purposive sample of twenty-one MSM aged 22 to 30+ years, mainly black who lived in NMBM participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews. The study used the exploratory-descriptive qualitative design and thematic analysis was used to summarize findings. Findings: Findings from the study showed that MSM experience internalized stigma, perceived stigma, experienced stigma and HIV related stigma, resulting in minority stress. Experiences with health care services included long waiting time, lack of supplies, being attended to by different health care providers, health care provider insensitivity, comfort with health care provider and a need for integrating health services for MSM with general health services. Effects of stigma expressed by the men were non-disclosure of sexual orientation, reluctance to use public health facilities, negative mental health outcome and conformity to society. Conclusion: The study suggests that MSM public health services need to be improved and barriers to health access among MSM need to be addressed. Lastly, there is a need to address the health, psychological and social effects of stigma suffered by MSM.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:20652 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Kose, Zamakayise Zukisa |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Health Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | xii, 98 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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