This Fact Sheet explores how HIV affects families and children and issues surrounding parents who are HIV-positive. Fact Sheet #18 is one of an on-going series. Visit the catalogue of Briefing Documents and Fact Sheets. Go to the related Briefing Document. The Fact Sheets are created by AIDS Calgary Awareness Association |
HIV and the Family HIV is increasingly being recognised as a virus that has important ramifications not just for individuals who are HIV positive but for their families as well. The family in which one or more members is infected with HIV/AIDS faces not only the effects of a chronic, debilitating illness but must also confront the challenges and strains that illness places on the family system as a whole. Effects of HIV/AIDS on the Family HIV/AIDS adds to normal family stresses in a variety of ways, including the need to provide housing and care of the infected individual. These needs may be complicated by the additional necessity to deal with factors such as substance abuse problems or poverty, often such problems are reflective of behavioural patterns that are embedded in the family system. |
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"Families affected by parental substance abuse often include a range of other problems that can impair their adaptation to HIV. Thus, children and adolescents often bring histories of abuse, neglect, and exposure to parental drug addiction to the overwhelming stress of parental HIV illness" (www.thebody.com./encyclo/families.html). People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) who have children are often unable to focus their primary attention on attending to their own needs; rather, they are preoccupied by the ongoing task of attending to the needs of their children. The role of the family in the support of PLWHAs can provide a much-needed bridge between the daily needs of the infected person and the services that are provided by the community. Such daily needs can include "everyday chores i.e. driving children to school or preparing meals, or as emotional support where the patient is listened to and comforted" (Papadopoulos, 1995: 29). The Numbers
Disclosure One of the most difficult decisions confronting parents with HIV/AIDS is whether or not to disclose their diagnosis to their children."This is a stressful decision to make, not only because of the fatal nature of the disease but because disclosing an HIV diagnosis often entails a conversation about parental acquisition of the virus" (Wiener et al., 1998: 116). Care of Children of Parents with HIV Children of parents with HIV/AIDS experience multiple losses. In many ways they are confronted with the premature loss of their childhood: they face the threat and reality of family disruption, their parents' illness and eventual death, possible separation from their siblings, the necessity of adapting to new caregivers and new surroundings, and the loss of accustomed financial and emotional supports. Children must deal with some very difficult issues. Feelings of fear, abandonment, rejection, grief and isolation are not uncommon amongst children of PLWHAs. One of the best ways to ensure the continued well-being is to keep the immediate family intact for as long a period as possible. Permanency Planning Parents may find themselves too ill to care for the children independently. Dealing with a potentially debilitating disease such as HIV is stressful enough. This stress is compounded for HIV-positive parents because they must also plan for a time when they may not be able to care for their children. "Parents facing a serious illness eventually will benefit from making contingency plans for the care of their children" (http://www.thebody.com/carr/women.html). Permanency planning must, as much as possible, provide for the relational, financial, emotional, psychological and social well-being of the child or children. While this is a difficult and potentially traumatic experience for the parent, it is one that can provide the most comprehensive, supportive and meaningful legacy for the child. |
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