The Impact of Stigma on Home Based Care

HDN KC Team
2001-06-11

The following report from the 1st SADC Conference on Community Home Based Care on March 5-8th in Gaborone, Botswana, appeared on ProCAARE on May 25, 2001.

The Impact of Stigma on Home Based Care

The one issue that came up in almost every session at the Gaborone Conference on community based care was 'stigma' - stigma that manifests itself in different ways and impacts on those being cared for and those that are providing care.

Noerine Kaleeba had ended her keynote address with: "I would like to conclude by returning to the issue of AIDS related stigma which one of the key obstacles in accessing care for persons and families affected by this pandemic." It is on this premise that the plenary on stigma was based - as one of the key challenges in mobilizing an effective response to the care needs of people living with HIV.

Nadine France and Scovia Nabagala gave that gripping plenary on the impact of stigma on home based care. The plenary looked at individual and community experiences of stigma and highlighted some projects attempting to tackle it head-on, one being a new initiative to develop a operational research agenda for Stigma and AIDS in Africa.

Ms. Nabagala - from the National Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda -shared with delegates her personal experience of self-stigma. She talked also about the 'The Uganda success story' attributing it to political commitment, committed citizens, a high level of activism and the involvement of people with HIV/AIDS. She said "...stigma that would have been associated with self-disclosure has tremendously reduced and to our pride our coming out to disclose our sero status has contributed to the success Uganda is acclaimed for."

Ms. France talked about the complexity of stigma and the many levels at which it operates. She examined the role that everyone in civil society - politicians, healthcare workers, religious organizations, people with HIV/AIDS - must play to address stigma. She highlighted some innovative stigma-reducing interventions including examples from the media and PWA-friendly clinic models .

Ms. France said emphatically, "The most important message about stigma, is that we can do something about it if we seriously try."

For the full text of the message, please visit the ProCAARE archives at: http://www.healthnet.org/programs/procaare-hma/procaare.200105/msg00013.html