ABSTRACT
In the time since the AIDS pandemic burst upon us, there have been many changes in the treatment of this illness that affect the length of a patient's hospitalization. However, what remains constant is the spectrum of issues facing our patients, including receiving the diagnosis, entitlement referrals, coping and living with HIV/AIDS, and eventually decline and death. Additionally, our patients' lives are often further complicated by substance abuse, character pathology, poverty, racism, and tenuous family supports. Much of the work, therefore, on our inpatient unit can become crisis driven or focused on short-term, goal-oriented interventions. A l - though this type of work, in and of itself, is effective, the model used by this group of writers, as well as others, encompasses a broader perspective known as "continuity of care." This model allows staff the potential for involvement in the patient's life and the development of a therapeutic relationship over time, as well as for the exigencies of transference and countertransference reactions.
