"He Listens... and Never Gossips:" Spiritual Coping without Church Support among Older, Predominantly African-American Caregivers of Persons with HIV

Abstract

Older persons are frequently called upon to provide care to their younger relatives with advanced HIV Disease. This qualitative study of convenience sample of 20 older minority informal caregivers of HIV-infected adults and children, all but two of whom were African American, was designed to explore their experiences with HIV-related social support and HIV-related stigma. However, a serendipitous finding was that their major source of support and strength was not social; the respondents were sustained not by relationships with humans but through their personal relationships with Jesus, God, or the Lord. Although the Protestant Christian faith was their primary coping mechanism, they did not tend to disclose the presence of HIV in the family to their churches or pastors, usually due to fear of the repercussions of HIV-related stigma. Thus religion was a positive coping mechanism for their HIV caregiving but the church itself was not. Researchers and practitioners need to understand this irony, and clergy and lay persons in religious institutions should work to remove the fear of HIV-related stigma which precludes church members from asking their congregations for help and social support that is related to HIV caregiving.