HIV/AIDS: Positive Living and Resilience

HIV/AIDS Services
HIV BACKGROUND
Globally, an estimated 34 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2010.  14.2 million HIV positive people in need of drugs but 8 million of them cannot access it. Individuals were commonly infectedw ith HIV/AIDS in their most productive years (15-49). The scourge adverselly affects development.  The sub-Saharan African remained the greatest affected. An estimated 68% were living with HIV/AIDS in 2010.  For the last decade, committed political leadership, social change, innovation and rapid injection of new resources transformed the HIV success into a vanguard of global health success, and there came a new face of hope, resilience, courange, and responsibility.   Among the key findings from the progress report 2011 “Global HIV Response” were the need for updates on epidemc, interventions on preventions, scaling up treatment and care of people living with HIV/AIDS, scaling up services for key populations at a higher risk of HIV infection, scale up services for women and children, towards elimination of mother to child transmission, and improving maternal and child deaths in the contexts of HIV.   2011 indicated drastic improvement in the response to interventions by 21% since 1997, and deaths by 21% since 2005.  But, as of 2012; the situation in, particularly, Uganda has been very disappointing. HIV infections shot up again from 6.4% in 2005 to 7.3% in 2011, and females from 7.5% to 8.3%, and from 5% to 6.1%. HIV infection was higher in urban areas compared to rural.  The Uganda AIDS Commission reiterated the impact of leadership of the present government as very critical in the reduction of prevalence rates between 1992 (18%) and 2001 (6.2). The question remains, what went wrong? Was it leadership fatigue? Was it blurring of the message edge? Or is the population itself not taking responsibility?
Services:
HIV/AIDS is central element in reproductive health work in recent years. Reproductive health alone envisages a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing in all matters relating to health.  It deals with the reproductive process, functions and system at all stages of life.  And it implies that people are able to have satisfying and safe sex and that they have the capability to reproduce and freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Implicit in this condition are the right of men’s and women’s to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of their choices for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right of access to appropriate health care services that will enable women’s to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant. Reproductive health also includes sexual health, the purpose of which enhancement of life and personal relations, are not merely counselling and care related to reproduction and sexually transmitted disease.

Finally, our experience increasingly shows that there is a link between reproductive health and security since contraction of any of the illness amounted to compromise personal safety which is aggravated violence on the basis of being vulnerable by gender, age. Ignorance of society and poor national leadership leads into production of children who become social costs and social misfit, whose goals get met through further violence with the society and who fall break the cycle of lack of information on reproductive health and increased vulnerability, with which to safeguard themselves from future reproductive health conditions, lack of personal, social, and national or regional peace. Peace can be attained only when there is access to information, knowledge of safety measure, access of facilities, knowledge of using facilities empowering to the society. In my work, guarantee communities with these assured the country of peace and security.

IMI IDENTIFIED PREDISPOSITIONS:
Vulnerability of children, Mental Health and HIV
Child abuse verses repression, projection verses limited protection and values, narsism and deviant, iressitibility, crash verses irressititability, denial, child hood,and living illusive life, avoidant, aggression, irritability, violence (including sex-related), displacement, projection, rationalisation, represion and defensiveness. IMI RECOMMENDED ACTIONS: forcefully take for treatment, experience truth, give hope , self imagery of life after, selfwareness and mastering life of personal wellbeing, mastering life with HIV, self discpline, development of hobbies, finding supportive groups/clubs, seeking support and selfhelp literature, finding and participation in productive work, self discipline, nursing and working on wishes and dreams -as well as walking them.

HIV WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF FAMILY MENTAL HEALTH
The project centers on family conflicts (or family mental health issues) which, if mismanaged, potentially, spills over into the wider community. It goes further to trace individual concerns (inner conflicts) that families consciously or unconsciously perpetuate –which, if not given due attention, like a time-bomb, blows up into serious social costs like substance abuse, aggressive and risky behaviors, increased HIV/AIDS prevalence, low productivity, poverty and looming ignorance to solve those problems. It is, thus, pertinent to address such problems from the environment around the root (individuals at family level) in order to achieve sustainable peace in the wider community (global peace).
HOW YOU CAN BE INVOLVED
As client
As volunteer
As service activity sponsor
As client sponsor
As fundraiser
As donor/funder
As ambassador
As development partner
As friend
Visit us
Visit our blog www.integratedmhi.blogspot.ug
Visit our facebook page: www.facebook.com/integratedmentalhealthinitiative
HOW YOU CAN REACH US
Telephone: +256774336277 or +256752542504
Email: waiswajacobo@yahoo.co.uk or dishma.imhs@gmail.com 

World AIDS Day

#AIDS Day: the story is real, remain alert, and at the forefront of fighting the epidemic and circumstances that give way to it! #Reflections #IMI

The Relationship between Decision Making, Level of Attachment, Circumstances at Conception and Environment in Healthy Child Development: A Case of Children Growing up in Kampala and Wakiso Districts

By
Jacob Waiswa,
Dishma Inc


Introduction:
Parenting is a responsibility one finds himself or herself under voluntarily or involuntary. During adolescence, gradual changes that may be cognitive, emotional, biological, physical and social or environment occur. The qualities of changes are influenced by how well decisions are made at different levels of interaction (cognition, instinct or biology, emotional, social and/or natural environment) in relation to one’s sexuality. It all begins at conception –through important stages of birth, special care of newborns, weaning, and child in playful stage, socialization and learning, gender roles or interests, young stardom, youthful period and adulthood.

The study explored parents’ basis of taking on the responsibilities, quality and level of attachment, parent’s ability and circumstances under which she or he conceived and the parent’s nature of the environment and lifestyle. It went on to find specific relationships between parent’s decision making and quality of attachment, circumstances at conception and attachment, nature of environment and attachment –and environmental, itself, and decision making.

Method:

The target groups were young parents (18 years to 45 years) subjected to both structured survey questions and focused group discussions (FGD); and children (8 to 18 years) that participated in FGD only. The study had 52 participants of which 33% were from urban areas, 10% (urban) and 58% rural; 40% males and 60% females. SPSS tool was used for data analysis. Appropriate questions were constructed that enabled participants –to freely and honestly speak out from their own experiences. Group focused discussions with equal number of girls and boys (2:2); and adults (women and men) =3:3 were convened guided by specific themes –regarding gender issues, human rights, risky behaviors and behavior change, relations with parents, knowledge of life goals and problem solving amidst family and environment hazards. Unique cases were also sought of how children from poor backgrounds and as for parenting care managed to succeed late in life.


Results:

Correlation between decision making and quality of attachment was significant –showed by r=0.317, where p= 0.05 < 0.022. Correlation between circumstances faced at conception and quality and level of attachment was not significant because. r=0.261, and p=0.05 < 0.05. Correlation between environment and level and quality of attachment was not significant –indicated by r=0.124, when p=0.05 < 0.381. Correlation between environment and decision making was not significant –determined by r=0.187, p=0.05 < 0.184. From FDGs, equal treatment between boys and girls was emphasized (4:4) and (6:6) so that they both benefited from development opportunities; of education (both formal and informal) and employment. Friendliness between parents and children was highlighted (4:4) –with correcting behavior attached to light beating -with strongest emphasis put on friendly talking with children (6:6). However, to parents, family planning was still a big challenge –as hardly at all did men approve of it (regarding condom use), while women complained of hemorrhage and delayed resumption of pregnancy as most negative (2:6). Furthermore, condom use was out of every parent’s mind, given the fact that they were married (6:6). 1:6 of parents said that, because her husband did not care about family planning, she adopted inject-plan secretly. 2:6 of women nurtured a norm that alcohol eased delivery and was associated to healthy and pretty babies. In conclusion:

Failure of parents to ensure child health growth and development was by and large a result of poverty. This greatly hampered decision making as observed from r=0.317, where p=0.05 < 0.022. In rural and semi-urban areas it is only mainly men who went to work while women stayed home to cook and bare children. In the same category, the nature of jobs determined by their level of education did not at the same time help meet children development needs as women complained of men’s negligence. There is, thus, a need to start life skills education, poverty alleviation program and reproductive health (or health education) programs to help better family-life situation.