ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on custody planning with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected parents, from clinical literature and experience, and from a training curriculum for child welfare workers developed and implemented by her. HIV-affected families have some special needs related to stigmatization and the disease process. Planning has a potential positive psychological impact on the parents and their children. Most importantly for the child welfare worker, parents of children in care may bring a sense of urgency to the child welfare bureaucracy. In in-depth interviews, mothers with AIDS identified a list of activities as key in the custody planning process. Foster parents may be especially attractive as permanent caregivers if biological parents have observed them with their children and sense that they can trust the foster parents. Some parents who are considering the foster parent as a potential caregiver will decide to surrender their parental rights and arrange for adoption.
