ABSTRACT
In working with people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, social workers and other mental health professionals simultaneously confront a growing diversity of population groups, unprecedented psychosocial and health issues, and personal and professional challenges in an expanding HIV/AIDS pandemic. Through 1995, a cumulative total of 513,586 persons with AIDS was reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with 62 percent having died. Although the number of cases reported during 1995 (74,180) was lower than the numbers reported for the years 1993 and 1994, reflecting the waning of the expanded 1993 AIDS surveillance case definition, it was 56 percent higher than in 1992, before the case definition was expanded (CDC, 1995). In addition to diagnosed AIDS cases, one million Americans are estimated to be infected with HIV (CDC, 1992).
