Pre Departure Critique
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I’ve always believed that children are the basis of what the future can come to and to secure a more equitable and just world, it is vital to invest in the care and future of our children. The socioeconomic status of our children is essential to a child’s development so naturally it is important to invest in education and a healthy basis for children to live a better life. During my time in in India, I will be focusing my center on how parents cope with certain types of dysfunctional skills that their children may carry, and how they feel others perceive them of this matter, can affect what course of action they may take.
My expectations of Indian culture and customs I believe, will be similar to how my parents were raised growing up. Both of my parents being from Peru, grew up in a culture much different than the customs we see here in the U.S. Many schools have you dress conservatively until your graduate and being close to your family is one of the most important things there may be in a Latin community. Due to this, I expect to see many adults still living with their parents with the mindset that they will move out once they are married. I also expect to see adults who have taken on the family business that have been passed on down for many generations, making it very similar to what you see happens in Peruvian culture.
Erin (2001) et al, mentions that HIV- related stigma happens when adults believe they are no longer valued because they are an individual who live with HIV. The authors went to mention that the stigma the individual may feel can deter their physical and physiological state because it affects their own internalized acceptance within them. That they no longer feel like they are one with society because they see HIV tied with people whom are criminals or unsuccessful. With negative thoughts like these, this tends to leave individuals on a state of depression. These individuals can typically become more antisocial and tend to feel more useless.
Mary Ann Liebert (1987) on a medical college study, ran a study to find the link between stress management and relaxation training and the immune’s system’s ability to lower HIV/AIDS symptoms. This five-year longitudinal study covered the effects, both long and short term, of a 10-week psychotherapy intervention program on HIV positive adults. The end results showed that the participants in the program had significantly lower depression and negative attitudes, while improving on their coping strategies during the earliest stages of the disease. The more the participants were active in this program, the more likely they were to be symptom free as early as two later. With HIV numbers varying from culture to culture, are psychotherapy treatments being implemented in other countries as well?
Unfortunately, India is the third leading epidemic when it comes to HIV/AIDS, mostly due to its expansive population. With high numbers such due to this illness there is a portion of these numbers that lead to, maternal to child transmission, and ultimately have children be affected by this. News Service (2001) expresses in their article on HIV, that nutrition happens to be the biggest issue In HIV positive children. That in fact, children tend to be more prominent to losing vital nutrients through a process called wasting. Almost 80 percent of these children undergo malnutrition. With high numbers continuing to rise, what is being done to not only raise awareness on this issue, but also what is being done to lower the spread of this epidemic?
There is a gap in the literature within research done in India regarding this topic and I find it doesn’t parallel along with the extensive research that has been done here in the U.S. However, my project this summer hopes to help fill this void. I plan to center my focus on finding out not only what is being done to help raise awareness to avoid the spread of HIV, but what treatments are being done to help mothers and their children cope with the illness. I plan to attain proper consent to further hone my skills and interview ten women along with their children and ask them a variety of questions regarding their illness. For example, I would ask what their knowledge regarding HIV is like, what treatment is done to help them cope with their illness, how easy is it access their care for their illness, are they using any contraceptives to help reducing spread, how accessible are these contraceptives etc. I’d also ask if they have ever believed that the way society may perceive them with of this illness has ever affected their motivation to reach out and obtain the appropriate help they needed. I’d like to conduct a depression screening and ask if internally HIV stigma has ever thought to make them feel out of place with society, feel antisocial, or ever a sense of loneliness. My goal would be to be a sense of social support and advocate for them as well as their children. I would dedicate to build a campaign that raises awareness on the importance that even something as little as raising awareness can go a long way as far as social support may go.
The importance of global giving is what I hope to raise awareness on at the end of the program. Personally, meeting children along with their mothers who undergo this illness, is a chance for myself to be an advocate for these patients in promoting dialogue on this issue. The focus of my program would uncover valuable research that I would greatly assist me when I go on to work on my graduate studies. I plan to work with children whom have dysfunctional skills along with their parents as an Occupational therapist, and this program would be a first step towards that goal. It would be an opportunity for myself to build a platform and show how we can learn from a global aspect on this issue.