Working In Social Work

Health social work requires practitioners to look beyond the medical model that most health professionals use. It requires social workers to assess needs beyond the patient’s physical condition including the psychological, cultural, social and spiritual conditions. Working in Health encourages the social worker to acknowledge any potential impacts of a diagnosis and look for ways to support and advocate for them through the medical process. For the purpose of this assignment, social work interaction with HIV infected patients in New Zealand will be explored.

Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV) is a condition that attacks and damages the immune system. The result of this, is the body’s vulnerability to sickness, infection, disease and death.

HIV stigma can be expressed through discrimination from family and friends leading to unsupport.The fear of social rejection decreases the motivation to receive treatment and disclose to whanau, leading to isolation. Durie’s foundation of whanau highlights the link between family support and positive health. The second challenge the virus prevents to the relational health is the fear of transmition. This view may strain on any intimate relationships, particuarly sexual ones and is a threat to relationship stability. Again, the real needs and issues are educating the whanau of the client to reduce internalised stigma. Taha Whanau suggests a need for social support from family and

Living with HIV denies the experience of living that was expected before the diagnosis. Grief comes naturally from the loss of this ‘normal’ life affecting travel, family planning, partnership and health limitations. The most common grief linke dto the stigma of losing intimate partnered relationships or childbearing. This particular stigma comes from an uneducated idea that sexual relationships and child bearing cannot occcur safely. Specifically focusing on Maori families living with HIV, the implications of relationships would be major considering the value on whanau.

An element of change to the daily routine of an HIV patient is the consistency of medication or treatment. Mentally, medication takes a toll on an individual’s outlook as it gives a reminder of their status everyday. This affects discrimination against themselves and is an example to why selfcare and support should be encouraged and implemented. Other reminders include restrictions into countries, hospitals and relationships that seperate and discriminate them from the rest of the