The HIV and AIDS epidemic is having a devastating effect on the mental health of
people living with HIV and AIDS (PL WHA), who join support groups to receive support
and empowerment. However these support groups are often unstructured, sporadically
attended and lacking in social cohesion. The purpose of this research was to design,
implement and evaluate a psychological well-being intervention for PL WHA. The
intervention was based on and measured with an objective psychological well-being
scale, which included dimensions of autonomy, personal growth, environmental mastery,
purpose in life, positive relations with others and self-acceptance. Following
establishment of experimental and control groups, six-week interventions with weekly
sessions were run during which participants took turns to lead group presentations on the
improvement of a previously chosen component of psychological well-being. The six week
interventions as well as individual sessions were pre and post-tested. Qualitative
and quantitative evaluation revealed that participants generally found the psychological
well-being intervention meaningful and valuable in its provision of knowledge, learning,
understanding and empowerment. Further research with an extended intervention
program, regular attendance, larger samples of participants, and comparative evaluations
of physical, biological, social and environmental factors is needed in order to more
clearly establish the effectiveness of psychological well-being interventions for PLWHA. / Thesis (M.A.) -- University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/10613 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Edwards, David. |
| Contributors | Petersen, Inge. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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