Interventions to minimize AIDS

AIDS knowledge and high-risk behaviour in the chronic mentally ill

OBJECTIVE

To ascertain the degree of HIV-risk knowledge among patients attending a downtown program and to identify the extent of high-risk behaviour for HIV infection.

METHOD

A total of 151 patients were selected at the Calgary Community Mental Health Clinic (N = 110) and the nearby Self Help Association (N = 41). Most of the subjects were being treated for either schizophrenia (n = 69), bipolar disorder (n = 37), or unipolar mood disorder (n = 35). Questionnaires included a 10-item instrument that assessed subjects' knowledge about HIV or AIDS and another 10-item tool that assessed the high-risk situations patients might have encountered over the past month or past year.

RESULTS

Although the percentage of subjects erring on questions about AIDS knowledge was smaller when compared with previous studies, a significant number of subjects believed that one could acquire AIDS by donating blood, and 25% did not think that having only one unsafe sexual contact would make them vulnerable to HIV infection. At least 50% of the participants have had sex with at least one partner in the past year, and 33% of the participants indicated that they would not insist that they or their partners wear a condom.

CONCLUSIONS

This Canadian study confirms the need for psychiatrists and mental health workers to continue to explore high-risk behaviour in the chronic mentally ill population and to further educate these patients through the development of prevention and risk-reduction strategies.

AIDS education for patients with chronic mental illness

Despite the AIDS epidemic's impact, development of prevention and risk-reduction programs has been slow, especially for patients with chronic mental illness. These patients may be at particular risk for HIV transmission and acquisition due to characteristics of their illness. Despite a paucity of such program descriptions in the literature and widespread concern that exposure of such patients to educational material related to sexuality or AIDS would be overstimulating, an effective and safe curriculum to teach risk-reduction can be designed. This paper describes such a program at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, in Boston.