Hiv and Aids in the United States of America.

HIV AND AIDS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

        “HIV AND AIDS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” shows that the immediate difficulties in social work with HIV patients include such specific and often difficult tasks. Forming a system of social services for patients requires addressing the issue of social training and the protection of social workers themselves. The myths and stereotypes about HIV that are common in American society are also common to most social workers, and as a result, they have such fears as their reluctance to work with HIV patients and their family members. For this reason, first of all, educational training is required directly for social workers themselves on clinical and practical issues related to HIV / AIDS. The purpose of which is to maintain and preserve the psychological health of social workers. It is also necessary to create social support groups in all social organizations that serve HIV-infected and AIDS patients, who can help the social worker cope with their own fear, overcome their own prejudices about AIDS and psychologically prepare the social worker for the possibility of the client’s death.

        Authors notice that many difficulties associated with social work with HIV-infected people include a lot of moral and ethical ones. Since the majority of clients in this category of the population belong to social groups that demonstrate behavior that is not approved in society, this is why there is a conflict between social norms and values ​​that the social worker himself adheres to, and client behavior, and as a result, refusal to work with this group of clients . For the same reason, there may be obstacles in obtaining the necessary services in a number of other organizations. To prevent such situations, special value-oriented training of a social worker is required.

        Social work for youth is focused on increasing the quality of life of people, which is extremely important for a harmonious existence in a humane and civilized society. There is no doubt that there are a number of such problems that a person cannot solve on his own, but there is always an opportunity to weaken their negative impact on people's lives. This is the main vocation of a social work specialist. Implementation of counseling, outreach work, social support will significantly improve the quality of life of HIV patients and help overcome obstacles to the implementation of successful therapy.

        A systematic special psychological and pedagogical assistance is necessary - the creation of conditions for the realization of special educational needs, special psychological and pedagogical assistance in the formation of full-fledged life competence (including communication skills). It is obligatory to organize special conditions of training and education for the realization of both general and special educational needs. When adapting a program to identify opportunities and difficulties in mastering educational material, it is necessary to conduct a survey of the level of formation of general ideas about HIV. Special attention is paid to the level of speech-perception and speech development of a deaf (hearing-impaired) adolescent, as well as commutative capabilities.

        HIV prevention programs for youth should be clear and as visual as possible. They should not include only “dry lectures”, but also physical activity, discussions, group games, visual aids and video materials. It is necessary to maximize the use of new technologies, such as interactive video and the Internet. Sexual abuse does not only traumatize the psyche of adolescents, such crimes experienced in childhood can be associated with drug use and other risky behaviors in adulthood.

        Counseling, outreach work, and multidisciplinary work are among the methods of social work with HIV-infected people. Counseling for HIV infection is conducted in order to support the infected person to help them realize their responsibility for lifestyle changes due to the disease. The main goal of HIV / AIDS counseling is to ensure that risk behavior is changed to less risky and predictable or safe, which will ultimately reduce the rate of spread of the epidemic. The second method is the organization of outreach work with HIV-infected clients (Hall et al., 2017). This means that a social worker who deals with HIV-infected patients who are faced with a large list of difficulties for the resolution of which cooperation with various specialists (doctors, lawyers, medical psychologists) is needed. For this reason, the most effective form of work with this contingent is a multidisciplinary team that provides various types of social assistance, provides access to legal aid and support, provides psychological assistance in crisis situations, facilitates receiving medical care, and provides quality control for the services provided to the client.

        Services provided by a social worker to people who are associated with HIV / AIDS are: socio-psychological support, which has in its goal to reduce the psychological consequences of HIV infection, and following this social exclusion, discrimination, which most often manifest themselves in fear of depression, anxiety. In finding help and receiving social services related to providing housing, helping to solve problems related to the ever-increasing volume of necessary medical services, helping people to realize their basic civil rights and protecting them, primarily in relation to the HIV status of an infected person.

        In the US, all powers in the field of social policy related to AIDS, both executive and legislative, are transferred to the state level. Consequently, this is why most of the states have taken the path of organizing single large resource centers, the purpose of which is to provide social and medical services for people living with HIV and AIDS. This model allows you to accumulate significant funds in one hand, and it gives the opportunity for their more efficient use and, in addition, customers can get all the necessary services in one place. Such centers are financed from the federal and state budgets and private non-state funds.

        Under this social program, clients receive assistance in obtaining government benefits and additional material benefits, including the provision of necessary products. Special programs of resource AIDS / HIV-centers are engaged in providing the necessary housing for HIV-infected people and their families. Based on the fact that among this group of the population the majority of people with low incomes, the US state policy is aimed at expanding this line of activity among the AIDS centers (DiNenno et al., 2017). Many Centers received grants from the Federal Department of Urban and Housing to provide housing for HIV-infected or AIDS patients for people who are addicted to alcohol, drugs or have various mental illnesses. The activity of social workers in the United States is aimed at using the technology of situational management. The American model of social work is mainly based on this approach.