ABSTRACT

This chapter reports some of the findings of the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence (ISDD)’s HIV Carer’s Project, a short programme of qualitative research funded by the Department of Health and conducted by ISDD and subcontracted researchers between February and June 1989. The project set out to gain a wide perspective on care issues in relation to HIV and AIDS, including the drug dimension. However, since coverage of HIV/AIDS issues gave women a low profile at the time, while a sharp increase in numbers of women becoming infected was predicted, particular emphasis was given to the experiences and needs of women. One hundred and ninety-nine respondents participated either through ten semi-structured interviews or twenty-seven group discussions in seventeen sites (mainly in Britain but also in Ireland and Italy). Included were ‘general population’ groups, HIV seropositive people, their friends and family, and generic and specialist workers in the voluntary and statutory sectors with drug and/or HIV-related experience. Areas of focus within the research as a whole included the attitudes, needs and/or experiences of HIV seropositive people, of lay and professional carers, of general population and generic professional samples with little or no personal or professional contact with HIV, of ‘unanticipated’ and of committed HIV/AIDS carers. The differences/ similarities between caring for/being someone with life-threatening illness were also explored (Dorn, Henderson and South, forthcoming). The following is an overview of aspects of the research which focused on the prevailing perceptions of women in relation to HIV among general population groups, the experiences and needs of HIV seropositive women and the gender-specific needs of carers.