TY - JOUR
T1 - Home-based care for people living with AIDS in Zimbabwe
T2 - Voluntary caregivers' motivations and concerns
AU - Rödlach, Alexander
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements — I owe special thanks to the voluntary home-based caregivers in Bulawayo, whose dedication and commitment to alleviating the suffering of their AIDS-affected neighbours and their families was an inspiration to me. Their cooperation made possible the research presented here. I am grateful to my research assistants Bernadette Maphosa, Eddie Dzinda Ngoma and Reuben Alvan Ngwenya. The research was funded by grants received from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida (USA), the Society of the Divine Word (USA), and the National Science Foundation (USA) (dissertation research award number 0228412). Thanks are also due to the Department of Sociology at the University of Zimbabwe, Harare, for facilitating the necessary paperwork for conducting fieldwork (permit number 02290) and granting me an appointment as a research associate. I am grateful to the City of Bulawayo, particularly the city council’s health services department, which gave me permission to carry out research there (reference number STN.TD.N6A/103). Thanks also to Judy Johnstone and Erica Hill who edited drafts of this paper.
PY - 2009/12
Y1 - 2009/12
N2 - Similar to the healthcare systems of other resource-constrained countries with a high prevalence of HIV and AIDS, Zimbabwe's healthcare system encourages communities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to support the public healthcare sector by initiating home-based care activities and training volunteers to assist households in caring for individuals living with HIV. As part of the response, groups of volunteers were formed to provide basic material, social, nursing, and other kinds of support to members of AIDS-affected households. My research in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, shows that motives for volunteering included: 1) religious values; 2) desire for prestige; 3) empathy derived from witnessing the suffering caused by AIDS illness; 4) hope of securing caregiving support in the future; 5) hope of enlarging one's network of those with access to political and economic power; and 6) hope of receiving material benefits in the future. This study further documents that volunteers' commitment to caregiving diminished between the early 1990s and 2009 due to: 1) the stigma of HIV and AIDS; 2) lack of funding, preventing volunteers from providing the needed care; 3) the large numbers of sick who are discharged from hospitals and clinics into home care; and 4) volunteers' 'burnout.' Strengthening volunteers' motivations for caregiving and addressing their concerns are crucial for providing effective care for individuals living with HIV or AIDS. In Zimbabwe, improvement of voluntary caregiving programmes requires better integration with the national healthcare system at the clinic level as well as collaboration with NGOs, community leaders and church groups, which have the potential to positively influence volunteers' commitment to caregiving.
AB - Similar to the healthcare systems of other resource-constrained countries with a high prevalence of HIV and AIDS, Zimbabwe's healthcare system encourages communities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to support the public healthcare sector by initiating home-based care activities and training volunteers to assist households in caring for individuals living with HIV. As part of the response, groups of volunteers were formed to provide basic material, social, nursing, and other kinds of support to members of AIDS-affected households. My research in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, shows that motives for volunteering included: 1) religious values; 2) desire for prestige; 3) empathy derived from witnessing the suffering caused by AIDS illness; 4) hope of securing caregiving support in the future; 5) hope of enlarging one's network of those with access to political and economic power; and 6) hope of receiving material benefits in the future. This study further documents that volunteers' commitment to caregiving diminished between the early 1990s and 2009 due to: 1) the stigma of HIV and AIDS; 2) lack of funding, preventing volunteers from providing the needed care; 3) the large numbers of sick who are discharged from hospitals and clinics into home care; and 4) volunteers' 'burnout.' Strengthening volunteers' motivations for caregiving and addressing their concerns are crucial for providing effective care for individuals living with HIV or AIDS. In Zimbabwe, improvement of voluntary caregiving programmes requires better integration with the national healthcare system at the clinic level as well as collaboration with NGOs, community leaders and church groups, which have the potential to positively influence volunteers' commitment to caregiving.
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U2 - 10.2989/AJAR.2009.8.4.6.1043
DO - 10.2989/AJAR.2009.8.4.6.1043
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:74849127328
VL - 8
SP - 423
EP - 431
JO - African Journal of AIDS Research
JF - African Journal of AIDS Research
SN - 1608-5906
IS - 4
ER -