Abstract #483 - FROM DISCLOSURE TO RESPONSIBILITY. A PROJECT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WITH HIV INFECTION
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Session: 6.48: Posters A (Poster) on Monday in Chaired by
Authors: Presenting Author: Dr Gian Carlo Orofino - Osp. Amedeo di Savoia, Italy
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Additional Authors:
Mr Pietro Altini,
Mrs Caterina Di Chio,
Mr Dario Cirelli,
Mrs Rita Verzari,
Dr Milena Sciaudone,
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Aim: Two years ago, the Arcobaleno (Rainbow) Aids Association, founded in 1995 to give psycho-social support to HIV positive people and their caregivers, promoted a project aimed at helping adolescents and young people aged 16 21 and infected with HIV to cope with their condition in a conscious, responsible way. The project is still running, but some of its phases have been concluded and can already be evaluated.The aims of the project are: to promote opportunities for young people of the same age having in common a condition of HIV-positivity to meet up and discuss, to exchange information about and to examine together questions related to adolescence and HIV infection; to move away from their background circumstances and meet new situations (other young people from associations both in Italy and abroad) in a development of the debate with others; to widen the network of contacts and relationships of HIV positive adolescents, to offer young people living in disadvantaged social or family environments a constructive opportunity to become part of a group and to work together, to instil a culture of solidarity, of appreciation of diversity, of prevention; to develop training courses for volunteers who provide support for and offer friendship to HIV positive adolescents
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Method / Issue: Activities: participation in meetings, two national and one international, to discuss the following issues: relationships and sexuality, stigma and disclosure, treatment and other medical questions, quality of life; the staging of a theatre play/debate, following the method of the Theatre of the Oppressed, entitled My partner is HIV positive to take to schools, participation in a self-help group led by a psychologist.
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Results / Comments: Thirty-one young people took part in the project, (13 M, 18 F), of whom 15 were HIV positive; the consent of parents or tutors was obtained for minors. The activities carried out over the past two years have shown: acceptance and involvement on the part of the participants; an interest in the innovative and participatory methods employed; the active and motivated involvement of young HIV positive people, also in situations of greater social and psychological deprivation
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Discussion: Furthermore, the project has represented a stimulus for different public institutions to rethink and reorganise activities specifically aimed at adolescents and HIV.
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