HIV/AIDS MENTAL HEALTH
We have the capacity to work specifically with persons with HIV. We provide individual, couples, and family therapy with the philosophy that healing the mind can aid in healing the body.
Mental health care has been integrated into HIV programs. People with HIV often suffer from depression and anxiety disorders as they adjust to the diagnosis, struggle with the meaning of a positive HIV test result, adapt to life with a chronic, life-threatening illness, anticipate and receive news of the disease’s advance, and witness the death of friends and family
Depression can reduce the motivation to seek health care, impair adherence to treatment, decrease quality of life, and increase mortality
Mental illness can also be a risk factor for HIV infection. Certain psychiatric disorders, including drug abuse, increase vulnerability to HIV infection. HIV risk among people with serious mental illness has been associated with lack of condom use, multiple sexual partners, and injection drug use.
The social exclusion that often accompanies life with a severe mental illness may also increase vulnerability to infection, leading to exchange of sex for money or goods and an increase in coercive sexual encounters. Cognitive deficits associated with certain mental disorders may impair judgment and the ability to negotiate safe sexual encounters.
Our HIV/AIDS Mental Health Services addresses the following:
Mental health care has been integrated into HIV programs. People with HIV often suffer from depression and anxiety disorders as they adjust to the diagnosis, struggle with the meaning of a positive HIV test result, adapt to life with a chronic, life-threatening illness, anticipate and receive news of the disease’s advance, and witness the death of friends and family
Depression can reduce the motivation to seek health care, impair adherence to treatment, decrease quality of life, and increase mortality
Mental illness can also be a risk factor for HIV infection. Certain psychiatric disorders, including drug abuse, increase vulnerability to HIV infection. HIV risk among people with serious mental illness has been associated with lack of condom use, multiple sexual partners, and injection drug use.
The social exclusion that often accompanies life with a severe mental illness may also increase vulnerability to infection, leading to exchange of sex for money or goods and an increase in coercive sexual encounters. Cognitive deficits associated with certain mental disorders may impair judgment and the ability to negotiate safe sexual encounters.
Our HIV/AIDS Mental Health Services addresses the following:
- The mental health risk factors for HIV
- The mental health consequences of HIV?
- HIV-related psychosocial interventions on mental health and HIV outcomes
- Mental illness-focused interventions on mental health and HIV outcomes
- Harm reduction as an approach to reduce risky healthy behaviors amongst drug abuse