ABSTRACT
Professional discourses around care for people living with HIV/AIDS derive from several sources, most notably the tradition of self-help incorporated into the framework of community care (Berridge and Strong, 1991; Feldman, 1994; Weeks, Taylor-Laybourn and Aggleton, 1994). It has often been remarked that in Britain and some other countries, the early impact of AIDS on gay men led to the development of services appropriate to certain kinds of men, and certain kinds of lifestyles, but initially failed to cater for other groups (Berridge and Strong, 1991; Bury, Morrison and McLachlan, 1992; DOH/SSI 1994; Positively Women, 1994). As HIV has spread, so services for other groups have developed but service providers are often unclear about what they should really be offering (Bairstow, 1994). So in social care there is the question of what services to prioritize, for instance, lunch-time drop-ins versus childcare support, counselling versus housing provision. Such decisions involve an understanding of how people cope with living with HIV/AIDS. Both social and medical care also raise the questions of where and how services are delivered, and of eligibility criteria.
