ABSTRACT
For social services departments the onslaught of AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) presents an enormous challenge, not least because of the climate of fear it has generated. AIDS is a fatal disease; it has no known cure. In helping people with AIDS and HIV infection social workers have to cope with public hysteria, government decisions, client needs and fears, and their own belief systems. This chapter suggests that the public presentation of the AIDS phenomenon gave rise to received ideas which inhibited social work action. It further suggests that the language of public discourse about AIDS and HIV infection often influences and confuses possible working responses. Communication about AIDS and HIV infection has left social workers responding to imagined fears and false realities. The media presented AIDS and HIV infection as health problems. Society responds acutely to ‘moral panic’.
