Management of HIV Treatment and Prevention: Indian Experiences

Abstract

Serving people with HIV encompasses the traditional social work role of advocate for an under-served client population and poses professional challenges for all social work professionals. This issue makes social work practice more distinct in an Indian setting, due to the complex multi-pluralistic nature of society and the need for multi-pronged interventions. The current paper begins with a brief introduction of the contemporary scenario of HIV in an Indian setting. It then examines the multiple levels of intervention at the grassroots. Citing various case studies from the field, the paper analyses social work roles, tasks, and challenges in the field of HIV. The uniqueness of the paper lies in its analysis of several models being implemented by non governmental organisations to deal with the issue. Adopting the theoretical framework of social work practice, it explores the role of social workers in HIV testing, crisis intervention, counselling, building support groups, awareness generation with various stakeholders e.g. schools, community, formation of advocacy groups, developing innovative programmes. The paper also seeks to critique several micro and macro-level field projects. In addition to these, the author develops an indigenous framework for building effective strategies in working with HIV from a social work perspective.