AIDS and Mental Health Practice

Addressing contemporary issues faced by individuals with HIV/AIDS, AIDS and Mental Health Practice: Clinical and Policy Issues provides psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and counselors with research and case studies that offers models for effective clinical practice at this stage of the epidemic. Each chapter is written by experts in the field and demonstrates ways to provide better services to different populations, many of whom are ignored in AIDS and mental health literature. As a result, this book will provide professionals in the field and students in training with the most current practice information about mental health practice and HIV/AIDS. AIDS and Mental Health Practice will help you understand the diverse needs of people with HIV/AIDS and organize services to assist these populations. AIDS and Mental Health Practice discusses issues that affect several different groups in order to help you understand the unique situations of your clients. You will learn how to design treatments that will be most beneficial to Latinos, intravenous drug users, orphaned children, African Americans, HIV-negative gay men, HIV nonprogressors, HIV-positive transsexuals, end-stage AIDS clients, couples of mixed HIV status, and individuals suffering from HIV-associated Cognitive Motor Disorder. This book provides you with approaches that will improve services for these populations, including: - talking to patients about the positive and negative aspects of taking protease inhibitors and discussing their feelings of hope, skepticism, and fear of being disappointed by the treatment - preparing clients to go back to work by exploring the meaning of work and referring them to vocational services if necessary - providing support groups for people living with AIDS (PLWAs), their loved ones, their families, and individuals in bereavement as a result of an AIDS-related death - organizing a HIV-negative gay men's support group that uses exercises and homework to focus on the members'ambivalent connection to the AIDS community, how they remain HIV negative, and ways to deal with separation and grief issues - assessing and/or correcting underlying racism in AIDS service organizationsThe prevention and intervention strategies in Mental Health and AIDS Practice will help you address and treat mental health issues associated with HIV/AIDS and offer clients more effective and relevant services.

R Dennis Shelby, Michael Shernoff

Contents Introduction - I. Clinical Issues - The Role of Mental Health Professionals in Medical Decision Making Regarding Protease Inhibitors - Intrapsychic and Systemic Issues Concerning Returning to Work for People Living with HIV/AIDS - An Exploration of Change: The Influence of Combination Therapies on PLWA Support Groups - Telephone Support Groups for HIV-Positive Bereaved Mothers of Young Children - HIV Prevention, Women, and the Kitchen Sink Model - Losing Lawrence: The Death of a Child in a Residential Child Welfare Facility - A Question of Survival: Issues in Counseling Homeless Persons with HIV - Support Groups for HIV-Negative Gay Men - Finding Their Voices in Group: HIV-Negative Gay Men Speak - Spiritual Issues and HIV/AIDS in the Latino Community - HIV/AIDS Mental Health Services to Black Men - In the Eye of the Hurricane: Clinical Issues for HIV-Positive Slow and Non-Progressors from a Self-Psychology Perspective - HIV Care for Male to Female Pre-operative Transsexuals - Internalized Homophobia in the Psychotherapy of Gay Men with HIV/AIDS - Dying Well: Counseling End-Stage Clients with AIDS - Psychotherapy, Counseling, Suicide, and Self-Deliverance - 'Story Telling' in a Bereavement Support Group for Pediatric HIV/AIDS Case Managers of the Brooklyn Pediatric AIDS Network - Social Work with Hospitalized AIDS Patients: Observations from the Front Lines of an Inner-City Hospital - African American Women Still Remain Invisible: Are Mental Health Professionals Doing Enough? Clinical Cultural Competence Issues - Reflections from the Field . . . Looking Beyond the Behavior to See the Need: A Case Study - Entrusted with Secrets: Working with Immigrants with HIV - Couples of Mixed HIV Status: Therapeutic and Policy Issues - HIV-Associated Cognitive/Motor Complex: Early Detection, Diagnosis, and Intervention - II. Policy Issues - Identifying and Confronting Racism in AIDS Service Organizations - The Challenges of HIV/AIDS Education and Training for Social Workers and Other Mental Health Professionals - Models Created in Response to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: The New York Peer AIDS Education Coalition - HIV, Suicide, and Hastened Death - Coming Out Positive?: HIV Prevention for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Youth - Index - Reference Notes Included