Adequate assessment of the needs of HIV-positive individuals in the South
African context is essential, as it may provide insight concerning limitations in
healthcare. This study focuses on the subjective experience of nine HIV-positive
individuals, in order (a) to investigate their needs; (b) to gain
knowledge and understanding of the strengths available to them; (c) to
investigate their coping strategies; and (d) to generate a set of guidelines for
the development of a secondary prevention programme to improve their
psychological well-being and immune functioning. This article employs a
qualitative research method, utilising hermeneutic thematic analysis to gain a
greater understanding of the subjective psychological functioning of HIV-positive
individuals in the South African multicultural context. To a great
extent, this research focuses on the salutogenic/fortigenic perspective, where
the focus is on strengths, capacities and emotional/psychological well-being.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine asymptomatic HIV-positive
individuals. The needs identified during this study involved the
psychological, economical, informational and social categories.
The strengths available to HIV-positive individuals in order to make sense or
construct meaning in their lives, consisted of four themes, namely internal,
social, self-regulative and spiritual strengths. The study further indicates that
the psychological strengths utilised by HIV-positive individuals are closely
related to the concept of meaningfulness, the mechanisms of coping and
psychological resilience.
A broad range of coping strategies was identified that participants employed in
the management of the disease and in dealing with the negative emotions
associated with an HIV-positive diagnosis. These strategies could be
conceptually grouped into five categories based on the functions these
strategies served, namely self-management coping strategies, cognitive
coping strategies, social support coping strategies, religious coping strategies,
and avoidance coping strategies.
The implications of this study are that the various identified concepts related
to needs, strengths and coping strategies, may contribute to the development
of a secondary prevention programme, in order to improve HIV-positive
individuals' psychological well-being and immune functioning. The concept of
"Sense of Coherence" which consists of three elements, namely
Comprehensibility, Manageability and Meaningfulness, could be successfully
incorporated into an intervention programme in order to achieve a positive
redefinition of participants' subjective feeling that life is meaningful, as well as
to improve their comprehensibility and manageability of their illness. / Thesis (M.Sc.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/165 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Doubell, Susan |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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