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HIV/AIDS care & counselling - A multidisciplinary approach
IOL, 27 November 2001. Reprinted courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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"The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The next best time is now". This African proverb starts the preface of "HIV/AIDS Care & Counselling" and sets the tone for its subject. It's given a further literary touch with extracts from the epic poem "Raka" starting every chapter. The author, Dr Alta van Dyk, has used it as a metaphor for the destruction HIV/AIDS inflicts on individuals and the community. She is a psychologist, nurse, teacher and HIV/AIDS counsellor.
"HIV/AIDS Care & Counselling" is written for health care professionals - counsellors, nurses, therapists, social workers, doctors, caregivers, volunteers, educators and spiritual advisors. And it aims to give them the knowledge and skills necessary for counselling people about every aspect of life related to HIV/AIDS.
The book pays special attention to women and children's issues, as well as cross-cultural counselling and traditional African beliefs and customs. The latter is particularly interesting and the author gives it great consideration with regard to how to encourage people with traditional beliefs to want to practise safe sex.
How to care for people with AIDS in communities with limited resources: The books also deals with community home-based care, orphan care and care for the caregiver. Practical advice is offered on how to care for people with AIDS in communities with limited resources.
Five parts form the structure of the book:
· Fundamental Facts about HIV/AIDS, which includes management of the infection;
· Prevention and Empowerment in the HIV/AIDS Context, which covers strategies for prevention, prevention in traditional Africa, changing unsafe behaviour and AIDS education;
· HIV/AIDS Counselling, which covers counselling people pre- and post- HIV testing, counselling the infected and affected, and spiritual, emotional and bereavement counselling;
· Care and Support for the Person Living with HIV/AIDS, which deals with family and community involvement, infection control and nursing principles;
· Legal, Ethical and Policy Issues.
The book ends with an appendix of Internet resources and a glossary.
A crucial source of information: Throughout the book the text is interspersed with panels of text labelled Enrichment and Activity. The first indicates interesting facts, such as the studies that have shown circumcised men are less likely to become infected with HIV than uncircumcised men. The second suggests projects, such as designing a poster for a rural clinic illustrating how HIV is transmitted, bearing in mind that most of the population is illiterate.
It is a solid, authoritative work with particular relevance to the South African community, and would be a crucial source of information for any clinic, governmental health department, hospice and even schools.
HIV/AIDS Care & Counselling, A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH, Second Edition, by Alta van Dyk (Pearson Education South Africa), 442pp, p/b, publisher's recommended price R150. |
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