Coping With HIV: Caribbean People in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Although Caribbean people in the United Kingdom are increasingly being affected by HIV/AIDS, there has been no examination of how they are coping with the illness. We investigate the coping strategies of HIV-positive Caribbean people using in-depth interviews with a purposively selected group of 25 residents of South London. The main coping strategies were more cognitive than behavioral: restricted disclosure, submersion, faith, and positive reappraisal. These strategies were intertwined in complex ways, and most were rooted in contextual factors, particularly cultural ones. Themes of loss, silence, and reinvention suffused respondents' narratives. Interventions should consider the high degree of stigmatization of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean community, reluctance to disclose, the likelihood of an initial severe reaction to diagnosis, and external stressors. HIV-positive Caribbean people who are coping well could serve as mentors and role models for poor copers and newly diagnosed patients; establishing Caribbean-specific support groups might also assist coping.

HIV positive men as fathers: Accounts of displacement, ir/responsibility and paternal emergence

“…Anderson et al, 2009;Baumgartner and Keegan, 2008;Flowers et al, 2006), a prevalent construction in our dataset related to HIV diagnosis as a point of 'crisis'. Metaphors of 'meltdown', 'doldrums' and 'quagmire' were commonly used to account for perceived paralysis after being diagnosed as HIV positive.…”

“…In international HIVrelated research there is general agreement about an initial period of 'crisis' after diagnosis; one that involves shock, disbelief and trauma (e.g. Anderson et al, 2009;Flowers et al, 2006). In a similar narrative of 'loss', individuals can talk about HIV as a controlling or dominant force and as that which takes away life, future and a familiar sense of self Crossley, 1999b).…”

“…Nico similarly spoke of HIV as bringing the familiar to an end in a thieflike manner (see Anderson et al, 2009). For him, change meant, and continued to mean, separation from the world of work and consequent displacement from a familiar routine, sense of self and a once perceived future (Davies, 1997).…”

“…Several authors have suggested that this 'normalisation' narrative is an important coping strategy in that it can enable a sense of order and control over the disordered reality of diagnosis (e.g. Anderson et al, 2009;Dageid and Duckert, 2008). …”

“…Anderson et al, 2009;Crossley 1999a). While readjustment is not a straightforward or coherent process, we highlight participants' talk of a perceived quagmire and re-emergence as a lead into exploring the discursive strategies that the men could deploy to ascribe meaning to, and thus experience, the process of postdiagnosis emergence and re-familiarisation.…”