Psychological treatments seek to support changes in patients's lives. Normally, they get better and move on with their lives. The time line is often different in dealing with the medically ill, including those with HIV. While making progress psychologically, patients may become more physically dependent. Divided into 3 parts, this book presents information and clinical material in a range of topics to support psychologically informed treatment of individuals who are HIV-positive. Each chapter proposes techniques and methods to address different concerns commonly encountered with this population. In addition, case studies are provided throughout.

As we approach the 21st century, we also approach the third decade of the AIDS epidemic. Mental health care providers must face the crucial fact that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the condition it causes, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is the leading cause of death among Americans aged 25-44 years. HIV Mental Health for the 21st Century provides a roadmap for mental health professionals who seek to develop new strategies aimed at increasing the longevity and quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as at controlling the future spread of the disease. Divided into five sections, this volume covers basic concepts in HIV/AIDS mental health; specialized aspects of HIV/AIDS clinical care; models of clinical care; program evaluation; and HIV mental health policy and programs. Chapters treat issues such as feelings of caregivers, the role of spirituality in mental health care, rural practice, mental health home care, and working with children.

First published in 1993. This new handbook clearly describes the theory and practice of systemic HIV counselling; identifying, assessing and managing problems. It combines theory, practice, dialogue and case examples. The approach is sympathetic to time pressures in clinics or community agencies; this 'survival kit' will help health care workers worldwide develop counselling skills. This book is for those involved in the professional care of persons with HIV, some of whom may be specialist counsellors, although the majority may be doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists and those from allied professions who counsel patients as part of their daily work.

Mental health and HIV/AIDS are closely interlinked. Mental disorders, including substance-use disorders, are associated with increased risk of HIV infection and affect adherence to and efficacy of antiretroviral treatments. Conversely, HIV infection can increase risk for neuropsychiatric complications including stress, mood, and neurocognitive disorders. This book provides clinicians with a comprehensive evidenced-based and practical approach to the management of patients with HIV infection and co-morbid mental disorders. It provides up-to-date and clear overviews of current clinical issues, as well as the relevant basic science. Information and data from studies of different HIV groups (eg men who have sex with men) make the text relevant to a broad spectrum of clinicians, including those working with low socioeconomic status groups in high income countries and those working in the developing world. The book uses the popular format of the World Psychiatric Association’s Evidence and Experience series. Review chapters summarize the evidence on the epidemiology, pathogenesis and clinical aspects of mental disorders in HIV,and interventions (both psychotherapy and psychopharmacology including drug-drug interactions). These are complemented by commentaries addressing particular facets of each topic and providing insight gained from clinical experience. Psychiatrists, psychologists and all mental health staff working with HIV-infected patients will find this book of great benefit.

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 organizations The 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.

An empowering guidebook which comprehensively addresses issues related to planning, implementing, and facilitating support groups for people with AIDS.

Accessible overview assuming no specialist psychological, psychiatric or medical knowledge Covers psychological interventions and psychopharmacology as well as the psychological consequences of HIV infection

AIDS has humbled us. Thus observes editor Mark Blechner in introducing readers to this powerful collection of essays on psychodynamic approaches to AIDS. It is the disease, Blechner tells us, that "has forced us to rethink our relation to sickness and health, mortality, sexuality, drug use, and what we consider valuable in life." In the chapters that follow, experienced clinicians shatter myths about the inapplicability of psychoanalysis to work with AIDS patients. In addition to setting forth general principles involved in working with patients with serious illness, Hope and Mortality explores the wide range of therapeutic issues that have arisen in the wake of AIDS. Among the topics of individual chapters: working with children whose parents have AIDS; working with AIDS patients in an inner-city hospital; disability, dementia, and other realities of late-stage AIDS; treating someone who becomes HIV-positive while in therapy; leading a support group for gay men with AIDS; confronting fears of HIV in the "worried well"; and coming out of the closet as a heterosexual while running a bereavement group for gay men. Most poignant of all are chapters in which therapists examine how they have been transformed by treating people with AIDS. Here contributors candidly discuss how their attitudes toward death have shaped, and in turn been shaped by, their clinical work. They tell of recovering near-death memories, of questioning their reliance on traditional medicine, and of feeling the numbing effects of multiple loss with their patients. The AIDS epidemic has become so widespread that every clinician must learn about the disease and the psychological issues it raises. Hope and Mortality provides an illuminating exploration of these issues and raises profound questions about the overall aims of psychotherapy. It will instruct and challenge all mental health professionals, and provide hope and enlightenment to anyone dealing with a life-threatening condition.

For gay men who are HIV-negative in a community devastated by AIDS, survival may be a matter of grief, guilt, anxiety, and isolation. In the Shadow of the Epidemic is a passionate and intimate look at the emotional and psychological impact of AIDS on the lives of the survivors of the epidemic, those who must face on a regular basis the death of friends and, in some cases, the decimation of their communities. Drawing upon his own experience as a clinical psychologist and a decade-long involvement with AIDS/HIV issues, Walt Odets explores the largely unrecognized matters of denial, depression, and identity that mark the experience of uninfected gay men. Odets calls attention to the dire need to address issues that are affecting HIV-negative individuals-from concerns about sexuality and relations with those who are HIV-positive to universal questions about the nature and meaning of survival in the midst of disease. He argues that such action, while explicitly not directing attention away from the needs of those with AIDS, is essential to the human and biological well-being of gay communities. In the immensely powerful firsthand words of gay men living in a semiprivate holocaust, the need for a broader, compassionate approach to all of the AIDS epidemic's victims becomes clear. In the Shadow of the Epidemic is a pathbreaking first step toward meeting that need.