Care for patients with HIV infection and AIDS.

Evaluation of services for people with HIV/AIDS in an inner‐city health authority: perspectives of key service providers

“…Others have attempted to categonze human needs in vanous ways, such as the physical, psychological and sociocultural interaction model of needs suggested by Bergman (1983) or the concept of normative, felt, expressed and comparative needs descnbed by Bradshaw (1972) Perceptions of needs and their relative importance will vary between individuals In order to build a full picture of the needs of people with HIV/AIDS, it is essential that needs are identified by both clients (Sims & Moss 1991) and by their advocates (Pinching 1989), e g formal and informal carers Furthermore, since there is some evidence that needs may be influenced by the stage of HIV infection (Adler 1987) and by the lifestyle or background of the individual client (e g Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs 1988, Brettle 1990), any sample in which needs are assessed should reflect these vanous stages and groups The current study aims to meet these cntena Thus, specific objectives are 1 to gather information on the social and health care needs of people with HIV/AIDS from the perspjectives of (a) key service providers (reported here), (b) clients and (c) informal carers, 2 to evaluate current services through opinions of these groups, 3 to identify common factors determining need and from this to develop a system for classifying needs of different groups (if appropnate)…”

Dying in a Public Place: AIDS Deaths

“…Such approaches are experienced by those already HIV positive, and trying to live with the felt implications of that, as serious blows 4 . The medical debate on the likely future of those with HIV infection -is it a 'one way trip' or are co-factors necessary to generate a transfer to AIDS -is something fought out via epidemiological studies and mathematical projections (Adler, 1987: Webster et ai, 1989. As such it is a debate that has a profound effect upon lives.…”

The work of a specialist AIDS home support team: the views and experiences of patients using the service

“…Dunng 1987, a specialist AIDS home support team was set up at an inner London teaehmg hospital m response to a recogruhon amongst the professionals workmg with AIDS and HlV-related diseases that, as the numbers of people being seen mcreased, the m-pahent faabties were being placed under stram (Smits 1989) It was bebeved that a home support team, developed along similar bnes to existmg eaneer support teams, would allow pahents with HIV mfeehon to be eared for at home, and would keep the hospital beds free for acute care (Smits 1989(Smits , &nits et al 1990 Indeed, estimates suggest that 27% of bed days used by AIDS pahents were used for palbahve care (Adler 1987) The team was therefore set up to meet the individual needs of the patients with HIV lnfeetion and AIDS and their relatives by eoordinating hospital and eonimunity services provide eonhnuous individual eare for patients with AIDS and HIV infeetion between the outpatient department, the wards and the patient's home, by prease assessment, good eommunieahon and eare planrung (Smits 1989) At the early stages, the need to evaluate the home support team's (HST) work and efifeetiveness, partieularly fTom the patients' perspeehves, was acknowledged This paper reports on an mterview study in which gay men posihve for human immunodeficiency virus, and attending the hospital where the team operate, were asked about their expenence of and attitude towards the eare they reeeived Queshons relatmg to the work of the team and patients' satisfaetion with it were mduded in the wider study…”