The role of the health sector in strengthening systems to support children's healthy development in communities affected by HIV/AIDS: a review
OUTPUT TYPE: Monograph (Book)
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2006
TITLE AUTHOR(S): L.Richter
KEYWORDS: CHILDREN, DEVELOPMENT, HIV/AIDS, INFORMAL CARE, ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN (OVC), PSYCHOSOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
Intranet: HSRC Library: shelf number 4270
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/6376
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/6376
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2006
TITLE AUTHOR(S): L.Richter
KEYWORDS: CHILDREN, DEVELOPMENT, HIV/AIDS, INFORMAL CARE, ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN (OVC), PSYCHOSOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
Intranet: HSRC Library: shelf number 4270
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/6376
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/6376
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
The evidence and practice experience in providing what has come to be called psychosocial programming and support for children infected with and affected by HIV, and their caregivers. A great deal of attention is currently focused on psychosocial support programmes for children living in communities affected by HIV/AIDS. Psychosocial support programmes include a range of interventions such as awareness raising, counseling, group experiences for children, opportunities for recreation, and the like. However, several technical consultations, as well as the available evidence and experience, suggest that it is necessary, in the face of the combined effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and poverty, to support the psychosocial well-being of vulnerable children through as many avenues as possible. Efforts to promote the psychosocial well-being of vulnerable children require conditions and assistance that go beyond psychosocial support programmes, and there is now a strong call for integrated services to families and children affected by HIV/AIDS. Amongst these services, the health sector plays a critical role, in providing direct comprehensive services to affected children and families. However, health systems also have the potential to play a powerful indirect role by assisting and supporting community-based initiatives to provide assistance to the most affected children and their families. This review covers the reasons for the shift in to the psychosocial well-being of children, and from psychosocial support programmes to the need to strengthen services, especially health services. The psychological well-being of children is the outcome of many conditions and processes in addition to psychosocial support programmes. In addition, a broader and stronger response, emanating from and supported by the health sector has the potential to have a far greater impact on the psychosocial well-being of children than can be achieved with stand-alone psychosocial support programmes. Although the greatest wealth of research and experience comes from sub-Saharan Africa, because of the concentration of the epidemic in the region, the arguments made, evidence adduced and conclusions reached regarding the support of children are applicable to all contexts. The review takes as its starting point, the consensual strategies outlined in the Framework for the Protection, Care and Support of Orphans and Vulnerable Children Living in a World with HIV and AIDS. Access to services, including for health, is one of the five key strategies. Health services can assist vulnerable children and families, as well as provide the infrastructure, organizational capacity and integrative approaches needed to draw together the many efforts at the family and community level to respond to the hardships of children affected by HIV/AIDS, and their caregivers.-
Related Research Outputs:
- The psychological, social and development needs of babies and young children and their caregivers living with HIV and AIDS
- Where the heart is: meeting the psychosocial needs of young children in the context of HIV/AIDS
- Strengthening systems to support children's healthy development in communities affected by HIV/AIDS
- Impact of HIV/AIDS on children in South Africa: the case of orphans and vulnerable children
- Psychosocial support (PSS) needs of community-based caregivers (CBCs) working with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in South Africa
- Methods for evaluation of psychosocial support (PSS) needs of community based caregivers (CBCs) working with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and PLWHA in South Africa
- Psychosocial support (PSS) needs of community home based carers (CHBC) working with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA) in South Africa, case of Red Cross Society
- The impact of HIV/AIDS on the development of children
- An exploratory study of the impact of primary caregiver HIV infection on caregiving and child developmental outcome in the era of Haart: piloting the methodology
- Care environments for infants and young children affected by HIV/AIDS: final report
- Meeting the psychosocial needs of children in the context of HIV/AIDS
- Pediatric nursing in the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in resource-poor settings - balancing the "art and the science"
- The use of implementation research networks on orphans and vulnerable children to encourage research-driven policies: the case of Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe
- A monitoring dilemma: orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS
- Enhancing resilience in children affected by HIV and AIDS: children's views and experiences of resilience enhancing family and community practices
- Interventions for orphans and vulnerable children at four project sites in South Africa
- "Going to scale"
- Going to scale: a randomised community trial to determine the cost-effectiveness of alternative interventions to support highly vulnerable children and families in the context of HIV, AIDS and poverty
- No small issue: children and families: universal action now
- Targeting AIDS orphans and child-headed households?: a perspective from national surveys in South Africa, 1995-2005