b>Aids-related deaths in South Africa: 1 814 805 at noon on Wednesday June 14 2006
A new centre in Botswana is piloting some innovative strategies to address the emotional and medical needs of HIV/Aids healthcare providers.
The Tshedisa Institute in Gaborone is the brainchild of doctors who recognised the need to provide healthcare workers, exhausted and overworked by the country’s HIV/Aids epidemic, with more support.
Doctors and nurses were not coming forward for testing and treatment because they were reluctant to share long queues with patients or feared stigmatisation by their co-workers. A place was needed where they could be tested and treated quickly and confidentially, as they were often waiting too long before seeking help.
Phildah Cele, a vounteer at the centre says HIV/Aids healthcare providers have difficulty in accepting their positive status: ‘It’s easy to talk about it, until it knocks at your own door, then it’s another issue altogether. They don’t disclose [their status] to their co-workers.”
Tshedisa offers training to organisations interested in developing their own Care for the Caregiver programmes.
Source: Plusnews