Human service professional and hospice care workers work with patients with the virus HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) that causes AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). Early on during the AIDS crisis social workers or human service professionals dealt more with the terminal parts of AIDS by starting up hospice services for the patients. Later on after much research and education the human service worker dealt with more of the psychosocial issues involved.
Hospice services can provide advocacy, crisis intervention, case management and coordination of services needed by the patient and the family. Hospice care has joined to improve care for people living with HIV/AIDS by giving “access to dignified end of the life care and support for families” (Hospice Organizations Join To Further Missions Of Improving Care For People Living With HIV/AIDS). Hospice can be as simple as offering symptom control to caring for psychosocial problems associated with having HIV/AIDS.
Through these years of education and research advances AIDS has become more of a chronic disease than a terminal one, therefore making a need for human service professionals apparent. As a human service professional it is important to educate and to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. When dealing with patients whom have already contacted the virus or the disease educating them on how to protect from transmission, on treatment and control are important ways to prevent further growth of this widespread pandemic. Human service workers are a large contributing group to prevention.
Focusing attention on “the factors that promote and discourage HIV risk behaviors”(HIV/AIDS Research and Prevention) have been a few useful ways to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. Both hospice care and human service professionals play an important part in managing the health and psychosocial issues that may be faced by families of the patient or the patient themselves that have come into contact or have acquired HIV/AIDS. References Jon, R. (n. d). Hospice Organizations Join to Further Mission of Improving Care for People Living With HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa). AScribe Health News Service, Retrieved from Gale: Academic OneFile (PowerSearch) database L. M. E. Gibbs; J. E. Ellershaw; M. D. , W. (n. d). Caring for patients with HIV disease: the experience of a generic hospice. (AIDS Care – Psychological and Socio-Medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV, October, 1997)(Journal News)(Abstract). AIDS Weekly Plus, 41. Retrieved from Gale: Academic OneFile (PowerSearch) database (n. d). HIV/AIDS Research and Prevention. Retrieved from XRefer XML database
