Gay hiv caregiver connect
In spite of this, one in five of the LGBT adults surveyed cited fear of double discrimination for being older and LGBT , as a significant concern about aging. These fears are particularly important to seniors moving into nursing homes or residential care facilities. Unfortunately, 41 states do not currently have any housing or public accommodations laws prohibiting discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation.
Homophobia can be expressed in different ways in a care facility, ranging from comments made to your spouse, partner, or friend by other patients or staff, to problems with the care that is or should be provided.
Special Concerns of LGBT Caregivers
Under the law, all residents have rights and protections. The facility must publicly list and provide a copy of these rights to all new residents. Read more about them at: If problems occur, the first step in resolving the issue is to determine whether the mistreatment is the behavior of an individual or part of a larger pattern of behavior within the facility. If the harassment is by another resident, possibly a roommate, ask if your loved one can be moved to another room or part of the facility.
If the problem stems from an individual health worker or aide, talk to the appropriate supervisor or administrator and ask if another staff person can be assigned to assist your partner, spouse, or friend. Under federal law, each jurisdiction must maintain an Ombudsman Program that will rapidly verify claims of mistreatment or abuse in licensed care facilities and help to mediate problem resolution. Local Ombudsman Programs also should be responsive to caregivers who want to discuss their concerns about care in a licensed facility and assist in determining if a complaint should be filed.
Contact the Office on Aging or the Area Agency on Aging in the county in which the facility is located to get information about your local Ombudsman Program. In our youth-focused culture, institutionalized ageism produces these feelings among heterosexual older adults as well. As an LGBT caregiver, it can be important to help the person for whom you care stay connected to members of your chosen family and to other LGBT older people. As LGBT people age and depend on others for care, they may become more guarded about who they are.
While this choice is understandable, one consequence can be greater feelings of isolation. Also, since LGBT seniors are more likely to be single and to live alone, extra efforts may be needed to build and maintain social support networks. Seek out multigenerational community activities such as bingo nights, film festivals, and neighborhood fairs, as ways to stay connected to the community at large. Patronize local cafes and bookstores where LGBT people congregate. Invite friends or family members to join you and your loved one. Try to take advantage of virtual communities.
Almost every hobby has a subset of LGBT enthusiasts online with whom you can connect and chat about shared interests. Caregiving for our Families and Friends online support group. Most issues that you will face as an LGBT caregiver for an aging parent or relative are the same as those faced by all caregivers. In a family of origin, it is typical for one child to assume the role of primary caregiver for an aging parent or parents.
That responsibility often falls to the person who lives closest to the parents or who does not have young children. For LGBT people, the assumption that they do not have family responsibilities of their own if they do not have children can be particularly hurtful. Depending on family dynamics and communication styles, your role as a primary caregiver may be assumed without discussion.
HIV & AIDS | Pridelines
If you need help setting clear boundaries with your siblings and relatives, one option is to ask a local caregiver-support agency or social worker for assistance in facilitating a family meeting. All members of the family—especially the primary caregiver—should think about what needs to be discussed. The person providing most of the care should explain what part of the responsibility he or she feels able to shoulder and what help is needed.
It is appropriate and important to set limits and not to agree to more than you can handle just to preserve family harmony. Providing care for a loved one can span weeks, months, or in many cases, years. Learning to ask for support and taking care of your own emotional, physical and spiritual health are important considerations for every caregiver. LGBT caregivers may also need to consider some additional factors when strategizing ways to find support and assistance.
To live openly and honestly, many LGBT people have had to make the difficult decision to live without contact or support from their family of origin. Many LGBT adults have also chosen not to have children of their own. In these cases, extended family may not be a source of assistance and support.
Open Journal Systems
If this is true for you, it is especially important to reach out to chosen family members for help, as well as turning to community, medical, and assisted-living support services when necessary. This is a very popular group, so make sure to arrive early. Please RSVP as the topics are interesting, group is well-attended, and we have limited seating. Topics include: Topics typically discussed are: When to start medical treatment? All couples welcomed. Pridelines offers socials each month, including trips to the symphony, musicals, and sports games.
It is also possible that the ability to maintain an intimate relationship could indirectly improve health through reduction of depressive symptoms or self-destructive behaviors. Indeed, numerous studies show that having a steady and consistent social support network is correlated with positive health outcomes in HIV Brummett et al. However, the cross-sectional design of the current study prevented the ability to make causal inferences between biologic outcome and caregiving types.
Nonetheless, these findings demonstrate the importance of consideration of the health and well-being of persons infected with HIV when examining caregiving patterns and in designing treatment adherence interventions. The perfect model has yet to be created that accounts for all of the sociologic, behavioral, and environmental influences that poor, low education and HIV-infected individuals are subject to on a daily basis.
Thus, the channels and levels of informal care are yet to be clearly identified and understood for this population. The current study demonstrates the unusual and nuanced patterns of caregiving within a vulnerable population.
The few studies that have been conducted in similar populations show that informal caregiving is affected by social relationships and economic resources. At this time, these available findings are limited and isolated and not yet able to be woven into a larger theoretical framework. There are a variety of limitations inherent in this initial pilot observational study.
First, there was an exclusive focus on the identification of primary caregivers with no attention to clusters of caregivers. We also did not systematically record the types and frequency of care that caregivers actually provided i.
Vulnerabilities and caregiving in an ethnically diverse HIV population
Additionally, we did not analyze the specific types of substance addictions and mental disorders present in the population, to ascertain if any particular psychiatric disease constellation predicted absence of informal care. Future studies that address these limitations can greatly advance the understanding of HIV caregiving in vulnerable populations. Finally, the unique findings from the current study uncover a large knowledge gap in the literature on the nature of modern HIV caregiving.
Most important was the identification of education and racial disparities in HIV caregiving: Our results also highlight the importance of consideration of the interplay of caregiving factors and biologic endpoints in HIV disease. Given the observational nature of this study, replication in other urban cohorts is necessary. Future studies will also be warranted to derive a more complete understanding of the factors that influence informal caregiving networks in urban, minority populations with advanced HIV. Anissa L. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U.
AIDS Behav. Author manuscript; available in PMC Nov 3. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Corresponding author. Desiree Byrd: Copyright notice. See other articles in PMC that cite the published article. Participants A total of participants enrolled in the MHBB between and were selected for this study based upon completed baseline assessments. Caregiving Assessment During the clinical intake interview, participants were asked to identify a primary informal caregiver and to briefly describe their relationship to this person.
Disease Markers Blood samples were obtained during the neuromedical assessment. Statistical Analysis To determine the associations between participant characteristics and caregiver type, chi-squared tests and independent t -tests were utilized. Table 1 Study participants' characteristics. Open in a separate window. Table 2 Primary caregiver characteristics. Participant Characteristics and Caregiving Several bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine the relationships between participant demographic characteristics and caregiver type see Table 3.
Table 3 Participant characteristics and caregiving. Participants with No Caregiver Given the unexpected proportion of participants who were unable to identify a primary caregiver, this group of individuals was examined more closely. Table 4 Characteristics of participants with and without caregivers. Modeling Caregiver Group Membership Table 5 presents the results of four logistic regression analyses to determine the value of demographics factors: Table 5 Logistic regression analyses of demographic predictors of caregiver relationships.
Table 6 Hierarchical multiple regression predicting CD4 count. Demographic controls. Caregiver group membership b. Discussion The transition of HIV infection to a chronic illness that requires strict adherence to medication regimens necessitates greater attention to the role of informal caregiving in the conceptualization of disease management. Contributor Information Anissa L. References Berkman L. The role of social relations in health promotion.
Psychosomatic Medicine. A cohort study of drug users' compliance with zidovudine treatment. Archives of Internal Medicine. Characteristics of socially isolated patients with coronary artery disease who are at elevated risk for mortality.