The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Psychological Health of Affected Children - Essay Example

Impact of HIV/AIDS on Psychological health of affected children Insert name Insert institution Introduction HIV/AIDS is an epidemic that affects the society in numerous ways. The most affected though are the children in the affected families. Psychologists have studied the effects of HIV/AIDS and it is vivid that this epidemic has negative impacts to the society. The effects have more pronunciation in the developing countries than they are in the developed countries. The effects are also different in different age groups. Some children who are the adolescent stage face the challenges of entering prostitution to fend for their siblings after their parents suffering and passing on from this pandemic. Generally, HIV/AIDS research and statistics are use to present findings. These statistics do not give actual explanation of critical matters like the psychological manifestation of HIV/AIDS ((Somi, Makene, Van Den Hombergh, Kilama, & Yahya-Malima, 2009). The research is therefore considered to be presenting numbers and not address personal issues. In this article, the major emphasis is on psychological health of affected children these include; fear, grief, loss, guilt, denial, low self-esteem, anxiety, suicidal behaviour and thinking, mental health etc. A research carried out in South Africa covering all aspects of HIV/AIDS in South Africa as reported in Abdool Karim, S. S., & Abdool Karim, Q. (2005).HIV/AIDS in South Africa.(S. S. A. Karim & Q. A. Karim, Eds.)The Lancet (Vol. 366, p. 592).Cambridge University Press. These aspects include medicine, sociology, economics, and politics to basic science. The research indicated a thoroughly researched account of the epidemics in the region (Saengwonloey, Jiraphongsa, & Foy, 2003). Researchers gave evaluative accounts of the impacts of these measures and presented an overview of South African children's health and mental health needs. In the discussions that followed four critical issues emerged: intersectional collaboration, accountability, retraining middle management, and a more comprehensive strategy to support pupils infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. This was cited in Kvalsvig, J. D., Taylor, M., Jinabhai, C. C., &Coovadia, H. M. (2004). Colloquium report: improving the health of school age children in an era of HIV/AIDS in Durban, South Africa. Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, 50(4), 251-254. Wanjiru in Mukoma noted it, W. (2001). Rethinking school-based HIV/AIDS interventions in South Africa.Southern African Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 13(1), 55-66, that the biggest challenge are adolescents who are just beginning to experience and experiment with their sexuality (Daily, 2005). Body The psychological challenges that an individual faces vary from person to person. Not everyone will experience the emotional responses described. The emotional behaviour of infected persons will affect their relationship with people around them especially children. They may become withdrawn, aggressive and rude to people round them, this is caused likely by the stigma within the society against infected and affected people (Mukoma, 2001). There are many psychological effects on children of HIV/AIDS parents. A HIV infected parents may show little interest in their children due to dramatic mood swing associated with pressure of the infected. Children in this case usually do not know what the problem is that makes the parent moody, and sometimes they blame themselves for the condition of their parent. This reaction makes the child to react with a lot of fear and anxiety. Usually, children do not like to see their parents sick and therefore, pressure begins in the child when he/she realises that the parent is always sick. The child’s life starts to go through a series of psychological changes; this is because the parent becomes unable to do certain chores in the household. The children are then expected to take up roles which are too heavy for them to bear, this is greater in the rural areas where the responsibilities almost double. Anger and neglect are other psychological concerns. Psychological impacts of grief, stress, avoidance and teasing by fellow children, social isolation and discrimination can lead to behavioural disturbance, fatalism, increased opportunities for abuse and self-actualisation. Children will tend to worry all the time and they become afraid they will find their parents dead when they come from school next time. They worry so much about taking care of them and sometimes make decisions to drop out of school just to take care of the sick parent. The children sometimes become hyperactive and inattentive while in school or when with other children away from the sick parent. Researchers have observed symptoms that are associated with trauma, lack of bonding, depression and attachment in very young children. This makes the children to feel deprived of their childhood, this causes misery in the child and hence the development of thoughts of suicide. Access to psychological counselling or other means of addressing psychological needs such as consistency of care appeared to be unmet for many children. When the sick parents die as a result of the virus, the children are forced to take care of themselves or sometimes taken up by caregivers, they often move in and out of household. The caregivers may change and the children easily split up. Splitting up of sibling has been found out to be a predictor of emotional stress among children and adolescent. The children on the other hand become more vulnerable when the care givers are very aged relatives due to the mutual dependency that do exist between the child and the adult. Stress as a psychological health impact is caused by illness and death of caregivers, discrimination, a stigma, disclosure of HIV status, loneliness, isolation and family conflict or uncertainty. These factors may be worsened by secondary factors such as; loss of home, worsening poverty, dropping out of school and separation from siblings. Prolonged toxic stress may lead to anxiety and depression and can have long-term harmful effects on a child’s health and development. Toxic stress has description as ‘physiologic disruptions precipitated by significant adversity in the absence of adult protection that can damage the developing brain and other organ systems and lead to life- long problems in social relationships, learning and susceptibility to illnesses’. Other researches identify grief and bereavement as a psychological disorder. This outcome depends on age, context of support and stability of the child before and after bereavement. These children respond to loss in different ways depending on their age, cultural factors and gender. The research also shows that the children will experience a wide range of emotions as part of their grief like, sadness, anger, anxiety, guilt and fear. Some may not even understand the permanence of their loss. These feeling may cause other impacts like physical pain sensation. Possible prevention for psychological health impacts Research has shown that psychosocial support is very critical for the health and development of the child. Affected children need support in dealing with their situations, disclosure, coping with the family illness, caring for relatives and adhering to treatment. Emerging evidence suggests that, depression or anxiety may undermine adherence to treatment but also psychosocial support may increase treatment adherence. As much as all children can benefit from psychosocial support, most of the affected children do not require individual specialized psychosocial support. Studies show that, typically just a small number of children need this support, especially those who have experienced prolonged and extreme mental health interventions. Numerous researches have occurred in relation to the effects of HIV/AIDS on the health and development of children who get affected directly or indirectly by the epidemics. These impacts occur in a number of ways some directly or indirectly in relation to the affected domains. Some potential impacts have effect on the psychosocial development of the children hence affecting the general development of the children in academic, social, and medical development of the children. In most of the countries affected by the problem of AIDS on children there is an observed low amounts of income found as 20-30 % lower than the non orphaned households (Boutros & Skordis, 2010). Studies in urban non-orphaned households in Ivory Coast show that in houses where a family member has HIV/AIDS the income falls by about 60 % hence having a significant impact on the development and success of the family and the children suffering the most. These issues arise from the increase in credit and debts in attempts to take care of the sick ling family members’ Merits and demerits of the researches Most of the researches have been carried out in poor areas thus portraying a one sided result. It only shows effects of HIV on the poor society and not in the well-off society. This still leaves gaps in the mind since one does not know what happens to the people who are well off and are in the same circumstances (Abdool & Karim, 2005). They strive to daily survival overshadows attention and concern about children’s education. More importantly, children’s nutrition and health is ignored, which limits the possibility of a successful childhood; in our study, one third of the HIV/AIDS affected children had to repeat a grade. Poor performance in school will in turn affect their future as adults. In conclusion the findings in the current study published in Zhao, Q., Li, X., Zhao, G., Zhao, J., Fang, X., Lin, X., & Stanton, B. (2011). AIDS Knowledge and HIV Stigma among Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in Rural China. AIDS education and prevention official publication of the International Society for AIDS Education, 23(4), 341-350. Guilford Publications, suggest the need of appropriate education strategies to provide AIDS knowledge to children, particularly for HIV-affected children living in communities of high HIV prevalence in rural areas. This way the children get proper guidance. References Abdool, K., & Karim, A. (2005). HIV/AIDS in South Africa . The Lancet AIDS Journal , 592. Boutros, S., & Skordis, J. (2010). HIV/AIDS surveillance in Egypt :Current status and future Challenges . Eastern Mediterenean Health Journal , 251-258. Buehler, J., Petersen, L., & Ward, J. (1996). Future Issues in HIV/AIDS Surveillance . Journal of Public Health Management and Practice , 52-57. Chin, D., & Kroesen, G. (2010). Disclosure of HIV infection among Asian/Pacific Islander American Women. Journal of Cultural Stigma and Support , 45-65. Daily, K. (2005). Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report Summarizes Opinion Pieces REsponding to Mandelas Announcement that Son died of AIDS. Kaisernet work.org. Forsyth, B., Damou, r. L., Nagler, S., & Adnopoz, J. (2010). The psychological effects of parental human immunodeficiency virus infection on uninfected children . Arch Pediatric Adolescent Medicine , 1015-1020. Harding, R., Stewart, K., Marconi, K., OʼNeill, J. F., & Higginson, I. J. (2003). Current HIVr/AIDS end of life in sub saharan Africa :A Survey of Models Services ,Challenges and Priorities . BMC Public Health Journal , 33-55. Merchant, S., McKenna, M., & Rosowski, J. (1998). Current status and future challenges of tympanoplasty :European archives of otorhinolarngology . Official Journal of the European Federation of OtoRhinoLaryngological Societies , 221-228. Mukoma, W. (2001). Rethinking School Based HIV/AIDS interventions in South Africa . South African Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health , 55-66. Rotheram-Borus, M., Murphy, D., Miller, S., & Draimin, B. (2011). An Intervention for Adolescent Whose Parents are Living With Aids in China. Clinical Child Psychological Psychiatry , 201-219. Saengwonloey, O., Jiraphongsa, C., & Foy, H. (2003). Thailand Report HIV/AIDS Surveillance . Journal of AIDS , 63-67. Somi, G. M., Makene, C., Van Den Hombergh, J., Kilama, B., & Yahya-Malima, L. (2009). Three years of HIV/AIDS and treatment services in Tanzania :Achievement and Challeges . Tanzania Journal of Health Sciences , 136-143. Steohen, H. (2012). Immunogenetic Surveillance of HIV/AIDS . Journal of Molecular epidemology and evolutionary genetic infectious diseases , 22-30. Zhang, J., Zhao, G., Li, X., Hong, Y., Fang, X., Barnett, D., et al. (2011). Positive future orientation as a mediator between traumatic events and mental health among children affected by HIV AIDS. Journal of AIDS care in China , 1508-1516. Zhao, Q., Li, X., Zhao, G., Zhao, J., Fang, X., Lin, X., et al. (2011). AIDS Knowledge and HIV stigma among Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in Rural China . Journal of AIDS education in International Society , 341-350. Read More

Body The psychological challenges that an individual faces vary from person to person. Not everyone will experience the emotional responses described. The emotional behaviour of infected persons will affect their relationship with people around them especially children. They may become withdrawn, aggressive and rude to people round them, this is caused likely by the stigma within the society against infected and affected people (Mukoma, 2001). There are many psychological effects on children of HIV/AIDS parents.

A HIV infected parents may show little interest in their children due to dramatic mood swing associated with pressure of the infected. Children in this case usually do not know what the problem is that makes the parent moody, and sometimes they blame themselves for the condition of their parent. This reaction makes the child to react with a lot of fear and anxiety. Usually, children do not like to see their parents sick and therefore, pressure begins in the child when he/she realises that the parent is always sick.

The child’s life starts to go through a series of psychological changes; this is because the parent becomes unable to do certain chores in the household. The children are then expected to take up roles which are too heavy for them to bear, this is greater in the rural areas where the responsibilities almost double. Anger and neglect are other psychological concerns. Psychological impacts of grief, stress, avoidance and teasing by fellow children, social isolation and discrimination can lead to behavioural disturbance, fatalism, increased opportunities for abuse and self-actualisation.

Children will tend to worry all the time and they become afraid they will find their parents dead when they come from school next time. They worry so much about taking care of them and sometimes make decisions to drop out of school just to take care of the sick parent. The children sometimes become hyperactive and inattentive while in school or when with other children away from the sick parent. Researchers have observed symptoms that are associated with trauma, lack of bonding, depression and attachment in very young children.

This makes the children to feel deprived of their childhood, this causes misery in the child and hence the development of thoughts of suicide. Access to psychological counselling or other means of addressing psychological needs such as consistency of care appeared to be unmet for many children. When the sick parents die as a result of the virus, the children are forced to take care of themselves or sometimes taken up by caregivers, they often move in and out of household. The caregivers may change and the children easily split up.

Splitting up of sibling has been found out to be a predictor of emotional stress among children and adolescent. The children on the other hand become more vulnerable when the care givers are very aged relatives due to the mutual dependency that do exist between the child and the adult. Stress as a psychological health impact is caused by illness and death of caregivers, discrimination, a stigma, disclosure of HIV status, loneliness, isolation and family conflict or uncertainty. These factors may be worsened by secondary factors such as; loss of home, worsening poverty, dropping out of school and separation from siblings.

Prolonged toxic stress may lead to anxiety and depression and can have long-term harmful effects on a child’s health and development. Toxic stress has description as ‘physiologic disruptions precipitated by significant adversity in the absence of adult protection that can damage the developing brain and other organ systems and lead to life- long problems in social relationships, learning and susceptibility to illnesses’. Other researches identify grief and bereavement as a psychological disorder.

This outcome depends on age, context of support and stability of the child before and after bereavement. These children respond to loss in different ways depending on their age, cultural factors and gender.

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