"HIV/AIDS is not merely a medical problem: the
manner in which the virus is impacting upon society reveals the
intricate way in which social, economic, cultural, political and
legal factors act together to make certain sections of society more
vulnerable. The epidemic exposes the method and the impact of
marginalisation and inequality in clear terms.
Marginalised groups in our society have little or no access to
basic fundamental and Human Rights such as food, medical services
and information. Many of these groups are ostracised by society at
large, and their lifestyles criminalized, making it practically
impossible for them to participate in mainstream processes whereby
they could demand their rights. Coupled with this dismal situation,
there is minimal awareness about HIV and no real options for safer
lifestyles. The stark reality of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is thus that
people are becoming HIV positive because they have no access to
basic fundamental Human Rights. For the same reasons, the impact of
infection is a lot graver for those with no access to rights. It is
time to recognise this link between marginalisation, Human Rights
and vulnerability.
It is also time to recognise that the HIV/AIDS epidemic itself
has given rise to a range of Human Rights violations. The refusal of
treatment, denial of access to essential drugs including
antiretroviral therapy, discrimination in the health care and
employment sectors, women being deprived of their rights and thrown
out of their homes etc are just some examples of these violations.
Apart form having a serious impact on the lives of people living
with HIV, these violations are pushing the epidemic underground.
Unless these Human Rights violations are addressed, there cannot be
the creation of an enabling environment, where people come forward
to access health and other services, or even get tested.
There is also a need to understand the exact manner in which
factors of gender, caste, region, class, sexual orientation
influence the impact of these Human Rights issues for different
sections of society. Along with social and economic factors, there
are laws, which complicate the influence of these factors. To
understand these different contexts would be the first step in
addressing the problems they entail." Report of the National
Conference on Human Rights and HIV/AIDS
|
Marginalised Populations
|
India has
3.86 million people living with HIV/AIDS, the
highest in any country after South Africa. HIV in India is
mainly transmitted through heterosexual contacts placing large
parts of the population at risk of infection. The stigma
surrounding HIV/AIDS, and certain vulnerable groups affected
such as injecting drug users, often leads to discrimination,
which constitutes a serious obstacle to HIV/AIDS control and
management. |
|
|
Mobilising Media Activism and Community Participation in Stigma
Reduction |
the project
aims to harness the capacity of the Nigerian media and
communities as a potential force for change to reduce the high
levels of HIV-related stigma and discrimination in the country |
|
|
Neighborhood stigma and the perception of disorder |
Many Americans hold persistent beliefs linking blacks and other
disadvantaged minority groups to social images, including crime,
violence, disorder, welfare, and undesirability as neighbors.
These beliefs are reinforced by the historical association of
involuntary racial segregation with concentrated poverty—in turn
linked to institutional disinvestments and neighborhood decline.
Stereotypes about race, poverty, and disorder may loom
especially large when residents have uncertain or ambiguous
information about the neighborhood as a whole. In poor
neighborhoods, many activities that in better-off neighborhoods
occur in private (e.g., drinking or hanging out) necessarily
take place in public. The resulting social structure of public
places reinforces the assumption that disorder is a problem
mainly in poor, African American communities. This stereotype
may lead to actions by members of the stigmatized group that
seem to confirm the statistical association between race and
social disorder, usually inextricably linked, in a kind of
developmental sequence. . . . |
Pdf 392 kb |
|
New challenges: HIV/AIDS and drugs |
Misconceptions about HIV/AIDS have led in some parts of the
world to an increased demand for young sex partners, including
very young children. In addition to the fallacy that children are
less likely to contract and transmit HIV/AIDS, in some countries
of Asia these are long-established myths about the rejuvenating
powers of youth.
|
82 kb pdf |
|
On Stigma and its Public Health Implications
|
One of the
curious features of literature concerning stigma is the
variability that exists in the definition of the concept
(Stafford and Scott 1986). In many circumstances investigators
provide no explicit definition and seem to refer to something
like the dictionary definition ("a mark of disgrace") or to some
related aspect like stereotyping or rejection (e.g. a social
distance scale). When stigma is explicitly defined many
commentators turn to Goffman quoting his definition of stigma as
an "attribute that is deeply discrediting" and that reduces the
bearer "from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted
one" |
|
|
Overcoming the stigma of chronic illness-Strategies for
‘straightening out’ a spoiled identity |
This paper
addresses the concept of chronic illness as a socially
constructed experience of stigma. The stigma of having a
chronic illness affects the person’s self-concept, capacity to
adapt to the illness and the quality of his/her social
networks. Social stigma is a de-legitimizing social process
derived from both popular and medical views of chronic illness.
Based on research into the coping strategies of a range of
people with long-term, serious chronic illnesses, the paper
argues that Government health policies and services in Australia
can best help people with chronic illness by supporting their
self-help groups and community-based activities. |
106 kb pdf |
|
People with Disabilities and Social Work: Historical and
Contemporary Issues |
From the
earliest recorded history, people with disabilities have been
ostracized, rejected, and discriminated against in society.
Although social work has a history rich in advocacy for
oppressed people, the profession has been hesitant to become
involved with people with disabilities. This article addresses
historical and contemporary issues concerning disability. Recent
developments in the disability movement, including independent
living, are discussed and compared to social work's approaches
to disability |
|
|
Population Council: Annual Report 1999
|
An
International Group that seeks to improve the well-being and
reproductive health of current and future generations around the
world and to help achieve a humane, equitable, and sustainable
balance between people and resources |
1,969 kb pdf
|
|
Potential moral stigma and reactions to
sexually transmitted diseases: Evidence for a disjunction
fallacy |
Five experiments demonstrate how potential moral stigma leads
people to underplay their susceptibility to STDs and dampens
their interest in getting tested. After adding unprotected sex
to a list of otherwise innocuous possible vectors for a disease,
we found that infected people were perceived to be less moral
(Experiment 1A), and individuals believed that if they had the
disease, others would see them as less moral too (Experiment
1B). Adding this stigmatized vector also reduced reported
testing intentions (Experiment 2) and perceived risk of exposure
(Experiment 3) – a disjunction fallacy because adding a
potential cause reduced estimated likelihood, in violation of
basic probability rules. Finally, we replicated the effect in a
computer virus analog (Experiment 4), and showed that it did not
result from simply knowing that one has not engaged in the
stigmatized behavior. Results suggest that avoidance of
potential stigma can have dramatic health consequences. |
Pdf 196 kb |
|
Prejudice from Thin Air: The effect of Emotion on Automatic
Intergroup Attitudes |
Two
experiments provide initial evidence that specific emotional
states are capable of creating automatic prejudice toward
outgroups. Specifically, we propose that anger should influence
automatic evaluations of outgroups because of its functional
relevance to intergroup conflict and competition, whereas other
negative emotions less relevant to intergroup relations should
not. |
162 kb pdf |
|
Poverty, HIV and AIDS – the challenge to the Church in the new
millennium |
Many orphans will grow up as street children or will form
child-headed households to avoid being separated from siblings.
Others will be brought up by grandparents with limited capacity
to take on parental responsibilities. All will have been
traumatized by the illness and death of parents, and often by
separation from siblings. Trauma will be exacerbated by the
stigma and secrecy around HIV/AIDS that hampers the bereavement
process and exposes children to discrimination in their
community and even in their extended family. Orphans will
probably be more susceptible to becoming HIV-infected through
abuse, sex work or emotional instability leading to high-risk
relationships. |
|
|
Ramatex on
Rack Again |
A petition
signed by nearly 700 employees cites poor wages, cramped living
conditions and health concerns as their most pressing
grievances. Their concerns peaked last week, when at least two
employees were forced to return to the Philippines after being
declared sick and unfit to work, assertions they dispute. |
|
|
|
|
Religious Involvement, Coping, Social Support, and Psychological
Distress in HIV-Seropositive African American Mothers
|
This study used a cross-sectional design to examine the role of
religious involvement within a stress-process framework.
Participants were 252 urban, low-income HIV-seropositive African
American mothers. The relationships among religious involvement,
stress, coping responses, social support, and psychological
distress were examined using structural equation modeling. The
number of stressors reported by the mother was related to
greater religious involvement, which in turn was negatively
related to psychological distress. Furthermore, the results
suggest that social support, active coping, and avoidant coping
responses mediated the relationship between religious
involvement and psychological distress. According to the present
results, interventions to attenuate psychological distress in
HIV-seropositive African American mothers might focus on
increasing social support, promoting active coping, and
decreasing avoidant coping. The present findings suggest that
this may be accomplished, in part, by promoting involvement in
religious institutions and practices. However, in light of the
cross-sectional design used in the present study, and given that
religion may have both positive and negative consequences
further research is needed to determine the extent to which
promoting religiosity may increase or alleviate distress |
|
|
“Report of the mission to the United
States of America on the issue of violence against women in
state and federal prisons" |
In California, the Special Rapporteur visited the California
Correctional Women's Facility (CCWF) and Valley State Prison for
Women (VSPW) in Chowchilla, California. The Special Rapporteur
strongly regretted that she was not able to interview the
specific women prisoners she had requested to meet and that she
was not allowed to visit the Security Housing Unit at VSPW
despite prior assurances that she would be able to visit the
prison grounds freely. The Special Rapporteur had clearly
indicated in her letter to the California Department of
Corrections in May 1998 that she would like to interview women
prisoners during her visit. In addition, the California prison
authorities refused to discuss openly with her the allegations
of mistreatment and abuse at CCWF and VSPW which are reflected
in this report…The Special Rapporteur has learned that Mr.
Kuykendall, warden of VSPW, has, since her visit, been "walked
off the grounds" and suspended from his duties pending an
investigation into financial mismanagement. This incident
underlines the Special Rapporteur's strong belief that qualified
personnel with a sufficient degree of professionalism are
required for any effective correctional system. |
|
|
Report of the National Conference on Human Rights and HIV/AIDS
|
HIV/AIDS
is not merely a medical problem: the manner in which the virus
is impacting upon society reveals the intricate way in which
social, economic, cultural, political and legal factors act
together to make certain sections of society more vulnerable.
The epidemic exposes the method and the impact of
marginalisation and inequality in clear terms. Marginalised
groups in our society have little or no access to basic
fundamental and Human Rights such as food, medical services and
information. Many of these groups are ostracised by society at
large, and their lifestyles criminalized, making it practically
impossible for them to participate in mainstream processes
whereby they could demand their rights. Coupled with this dismal
situation, there is minimal awareness about HIV and no real
options for safer lifestyles. The stark reality of the HIV/AIDS
epidemic is thus that people are becoming HIV positive because
they have no access to basic fundamental Human Rights.
|
|
|
Resource Manual for Support of Dentists with HBV, HIV, TB and
Other Infectious Diseases |
Infected
practitioners have various legal rights and responsibilities, as
do persons with whom they associate. There are civil rights laws
prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities,
which afford numerous protections to infected providers and
those who associate with them. These and other state laws (e.g.,
pertaining to confidentiality and practice restrictions) may
bear upon an infected provider's practice. |
|
|
Rethinking AIDS as Social Responsibility
|
AIDS control
efforts reflect the best and the worst face of globalization.
How are the dual sides manifest in relation to AIDS and how can
we capitalize on the positive and counter the negative
implications? These are the central concerns while
conceptualizing the workshop |
|
|
Risk of confidentiality breach can make HIV patients shy from
treatment |
"A breach of confidentiality carries the potential for a greater
consequence on the lives of these patients than it may in many
other diagnoses, and so confidentiality has a deeper meaning for
them," said Kathryn Whetten-Goldstein, assistant professor in
the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy's Center for Health
Policy, Law and Management and primary investigator for the
study, which was funded by the Department of Health and Human
Services. "A perceived risk of a breach of confidentiality can
prompt an HIV patient to choose a clinic several hours away
rather than one closer to home, to withhold information from
providers or even to reject treatment altogether." |
|
|
Single-Motive and Multi-Motive Processing of a Threat Appeal:
Promoting the Preventative Health Behavior of Influenza
Vaccinations |
This study
considers the impact of behavioral commitment on the cognitive
and affective processing of a persuasive message advocating
influenza vaccination behaviors, and the resulting impact on the
integration of information into attitudes, behavioral intention,
and behavior. |
|
|
Shaking off
'shame' |
In a
civilized society, people should not be scared to talk about
their ailments -- especially when the illness may have been
contracted from medical product infected with a potentially
fatal virus. Yet in Japan, between 1980 and 2001, an estimated
10,000 people may have been infected with the hepatitis C virus
(HCV) after being injected with a tainted blood coagulant during
labor or surgery -- but most choose to keep their condition
secret. |
|
|
Silence about
AIDS is death |
We must
keep AIDS at the top of our political and practical agenda. That
is why we must continue to speak up openly about AIDS. No
progress will be achieved by being timid, refusing to face
unpleasant facts, or prejudging our fellow human beings -- still
less by stigmatising people living with HIV/AIDS. Let no one
imagine that we can protect ourselves by building barriers
between ‘us’ and ‘them’. In the ruthless world of AIDS, there is
no us and them. And in that world, silence is death |
|
|
Skills Development for
Multicultural Rehabilitation Counseling:
A Quality Of Life Perspective |
This article
focuses on a discussion of specific strategies usable in
promoting the development of leadership capabilities in
individuals with disabilities from minority groups. This paper
states that rehabilitative success in counseling such persons
depends on "the counselors understanding the life factors unique
to consumers whose sociocultural experiences are different."
|
|
|
Social Stigma-A comparative qualitative study of integrated and
vertical care approaches to leprosy |
Leprosy has been
associated with stigma and social exclusion throughout history and
on all continents, although there are wide variations in the ways in
which this is worked out in different communities. Stigma can be
defined as an attribute that is deeply discrediting, and the
stigmatized individual is one who is not accepted and is not
accorded the respect and regard of his peers; one who is
disqualified from social acceptance |
Pdf 78 kb |
|
Social Stigma, HIV/AIDS Knowledge, and Sexual Risk
|
A
cross-sectional study of 481 sexually active, heterosexual late
adolescents showed that: (a) heterosexual people may be distancing
themselves from HIV/AIDS because of its association with the gay
community while also engaging in greater behavioral risk for
HIV/AIDS; and (b) the ways a person comes to know about HIV/AIDS
(perceived knowledge, passive classroom learning, media influence,
and knowing people with HIV/AIDS) can be related to sexual risk
behavior through the operation of two mediating variables, condom
self-efficacy and perceived HIV/AIDS risk. The variables studied are
closely linked with Stage 1 factors in the AIDS Risk Reduction
Model. Implications for understanding how stigmatizing can affect
behavior are discussed, as well as implications for education in
HIV/AIDS related issues. |
Pdf 229 kb |
|
Spiritually Rooted Diseases
|
Behind every health issue and every emotional or spiritual problem
resides the "Spirit of Fear." The Spirit of Fear is the Devil's
faith working in people by using lies to control them. And if we
dwell on those lies long enough, we will begin to believe them, thus
resulting in responding to them which can lead to all kinds of
problems. We need to discover the root behind our problems. |
|
|
Stigma, Discrimination and HIV/AIDS in
Latin America |
HIV/AIDS plays to some deep-seated fears and anxieties—fear of germs
and disease, fear of death, and anxieties about sex. There are
major similarities between HIV/AIDS-related stigma and
discrimination and some of the negative social reactions triggered
by diseases such as leprosy, tuberculosis and cancer |
Pdf 93 kb |
|
Stigma and
Discrimination |
Stigma is as old as history. While the word dates back to ancient
Greek times and refers to the physical mark made by fire or with
knives on individuals or groups considered outsiders or inferiors,
the concept appears universal. In different cultures and at
different times, slaves, criminals and adulterers – or those
suspected of being slaves, criminals and adulterers – have been
branded or otherwise physically marked. |
|
|
Stigma and Acceptance of Persons with Disabilities |
We explore
this critical aspect of the social context by investigating
employee acceptance of a coworker who has a disability. We
conceptualize acceptance specifically in terms of an incumbent
employee’s attitude toward a coworker who has a disability,
perceptions, of fairness of accommodations the coworker
receives, and employment judgments about that coworker (with
respect to hiring, promoting, and retaining. |
144 kb pdf |
|
Stigma and Discrimination Defined
|
[Erving] Goffman defined stigma as an "attribute that is deeply
discrediting" that reduces the bearer "from a whole and usual
person to a tainted, discounted one." Since Goffman, alternative
definitions have varied considerably. Two reasons for this
variation are that the concept has been applied to an enormous
array of different circumstances -- from schizophrenia to exotic
dancing -- and that it has been studied from the perspective of
many disciplines. We attempt to advance the study of stigma by
proposing a definition that encompasses these differences and
that attends to important critiques noting that much theory
about stigma is uninformed by the lived experience of the people
being studied and that research on stigma has an individualistic
focus, viewing stigmas as something in the person rather than a
designation that others affix to the person. |
|
|
Stigma and Global Health: Developing a Research Agenda
|
"Typically,
miners who are believed to be infected are shunned. They sit
alone in buses that carry workers to the pit. They eat alone in
the company kitchens because their colleagues are afraid to
share utensils or crockery with them." |
|
|
Stigma and Social Control
|
Social interactions provide a set of incentives for regulating
individual behavior. Chief among these is stigma, the
status loss and discrimination that results from the display of
stigmatized attributes or behaviors. The stigmatization of
behavior is the enforcement mechanism behind social norms. This
paper models the incentive effects of stigmatization in the
context of undertaking criminal acts. Stigma is a flow cost of
uncertain duration which varies negatively with the number of
stigmatized individuals. Criminal opportunities arrive randomly
and an equilibrium model describes the conditions under which
each individual chooses the behavior that, if detected, is
stigmatized. The comparative static analysis of stigma costs
differs from that of conventional penalties. One surprising
result with important policy implications is that stigma costs
of long duration will lead to increased crime rates. |
Pdf 387 kb |
|
|
|
STIGMA AND VIOLENCE |
Stigma is one of the most important problems encountered by
individuals with severe psychiatric disorders. It lowers their
self-esteem, contributes to disrupted family relationships, and
adversely affects their ability to socialize, obtain housing,
and become employed (Wahl, 1999). In December 1999, the Surgeon
General’s Report on Mental Health called stigma "powerful and
pervasive," and then-Secretary of Health and Human Services
Donna Shalala added: "Fear and stigma persist, resulting in lost
opportunities for individuals to seek treatment and improve or
recover." |
|
|
Stigma is Social Death |
While respondents cited a variety of sources of stigma, most
frequently mentioned were the attitudes and practices of the
mental health system and its workforce. Following are attitudes,
beliefs and practices within the mental health system thought to
be stigmatizing. Issues relating to power and control were most
often mentioned. These included the practice of forced treatment
as well as threats of forced treatment or of no treatment.
People also cited lack of involvement in treatment planning or
other aspects of decision-making about their lives. In addition,
restrictions on the freedom to come and go; being "placed" in a
house or apartment, and other examples were given. The
experience of having lower status than staff within the mental
health system was commonly mentioned. Many examples were given,
including cues within the physical environment such as separate
staff-client bathrooms and eating areas, demeaning and
infantilizing interactions between staff and
consumers/survivors, differences in status embedded in program
policies, and discriminatory treatment in employment of people
with psychiatric disabilities as mental health workers. |
|
|
Stigma of Hepatitis C and Lack of Awareness Stops Americans From
Getting
Tested and Treated |
Americans'
misunderstanding of the potential dangers of hepatitis C is
causing many with risk factors to forgo testing and treatment,
according to a landmark survey commissioned by American
Gastroenterological Association the
|
|
|
Stigma, Contagion, Defect Issues in the Anthropology of Public
Health |
Much of this
research has been framed by his interests in questions of
micro-social processes within which the self is created and
maintained. Goffman applied the term (negative) stigma to any
condition, attribute, trait, or behavior that symbolically
marked off the bearer as “culturally unacceptable” or inferior,
with consequent feelings of shame, guilt and disgrace. |
|
|
Stigma, Discrimination and the
Conspiracy of Silence |
Stigma and
discrimination fuel the HIV/AIDS epidemic by creating a culture
of secrecy, silence, ignorance, blame, shame and victimisation,
says the International Council of Nurses (ICN). "Stigma
prevents communities from addressing HIV/AIDS with the
appropriate health care services, legal and educational
strategies," declared ICN president Christine Hancock. "What
stops them is HIV prejudice. And all that will stop HIV
prejudice is speaking openly about the facts. It is past time
for governments, civil society leaders and religious
institutions to end the conspiracy of silence and shame
surrounding HIV/AIDS." |
|
|
Stigma in our Schools and Communities |
Stigma is
fundamentally different from discrimination. Most people
understand what discrimination is, but many are not clear what
stigma means. Discrimination focuses attention on the producers
of rejection and exclusion—those who discriminate against others
for any number of reasons. Stigma directs attention to the
people who are the recipients of these behaviors. |
136 kb pdf |
|
Stigma Interventions and Research for International Health |
Stigma has become an increasingly important priority for health
policy and research. The topic encompasses a broad set of
interests and specifies a field of study, however, that without
critical rethinking may be too broad to contribute as much as we
expect to health policy. The diversity of international health
problems and the complexity of their social and cultural
settings make questions of stigma even more challenging. Too
little attention has been paid to the concept of stigma,
distinct from its impact; careful consideration of the
particular features of a useful formulation to guide public
health policy and action is needed, especially with respect to
the stigmatizing diseases of low- and middle-income countries.
As we critically review of the topic, we begin by considering a
few key points from the seminal contribution of the sociologist
Erving Goffman |
|
|
Stigma, Race
and Disease in 20th Century America: An Historical Overview |
In the work,
Goffman sought to analyze three types of stigma. The first
he called stigma deriving from physical deformities (and we
might add to, physical infirmity). Second, he suggested
that stigma was often associated with perceived “blemishes of
individual character” which could include anything from “mental
disorder” and “homosexuality” to “radical political behavior.”
Third, Goffman designated “the tribal stigma of race, nation,
and religion” which are “transmitted through lineages” and
possessed equally in all members of a family. Thus, group
membership and group identity could be (in themselves)
significant sources of stigma. |
|
|
Stigma and Religion: An
Inevitable Partnership? |
"Stigma almost killed me" related one delegate who had been
ostracized from her church because of her HIV status. Her statement
underlined the continuing damage of HIV-related stigma, and the role
of religious leaders in reducing discrimination
|
|
|
Stigmas, Myths and Tuberculosis
|
Stigmatising
Others is a basic human reaction when the person feels fearful
for their own health or social status. In my opinion the history
of Tuberculosis provides possibly the most complete basis for
tracing the many ramifications of stigmatization of individuals,
of women as a gender, of 'race' and classes of occupation.
|
|
|
Stigma, Threat, and Social Interactions |
Many theorists have explicitly or implicitly woven stigma into
their explanations of stereotyping, prejudice, social justice,
and social identity. Researchers have accumulated a wealth of
information regarding the impact of stigmatized others (or
“targets”) on affective and cognitive processes of perceivers
and a more modest but substantial amount of information
regarding the impact of a stigma on the bearer. Researchers
have also accumulated much knowledge on the social identity of
the stigmatized, the consequences of membership in stigmatized
groups, and coping with stigma |
|
|
"Stigma is Social Death" |
People described a number of sources of stigma. Major sources
included family, friends and intimates, the job market and
co-workers, neighbors, people at church and in school. They also
described the practices of the housing market, insurance
companies and the social security system as being stigmatizing…
Issues relating to power and control were most often mentioned.
These included the practice of forced treatment as well as
threats of forced treatment or of no treatment. People also
cited lack of involvement in treatment planning or other aspects
of decision-making about their lives. In addition, restrictions
on the freedom to come and go; being "placed" in a house or
apartment, and other examples were given. |
|
|
Stigma Toolkit-AIDS stigma. |
Understanding and challenging HIV stigma—toolkit for action |
9,937 kb pdf |
|
Stigma without Impairment: Broadening the Scope of Disability
Discrimination Law |
It may, however, be more difficult in the case of disability
than race to decide what classes of individuals face evils
comparable to those addressed by the statute’s “core
prohibitions.” Construing the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include
Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, or Caucasians appears (at
least in retrospect) straightforward, because it is clear that
people of any racial, ethnic, or national-origin group can be
treated as moral inferiors by virtue of their membership in that
group. In contrast, the justices in Sutton disagreed
about whether discrimination against individuals with minor and
correctable impairments was an evil comparable to discrimination
against individuals with more severe, less tractable
impairments. For the majority it was not, because the former,
unlike the latter, are not a discrete and insular minority, left
poor and powerless by a long history of exclusion and neglect.
Because of this difference, the majority held an employer was
“free to decide that physical characteristics or medical
conditions that do not rise to the level of an impairment—such
as one’s height, build, or singing voice—are preferable to
others, just as it is free to decide that some limiting, but not
substantially limiting impairments make individuals less
than ideally suited for a job.” |
|
|
Strategies for working on the theme "stigma"
|
although
there is widespread awareness of the extent and impact of
stigma, we believe that the phenomenon as it relates to AIDS is
still little understood. As a consequence, the responses to
stigma, by policymakers, non-governmental organisations, the
media and others are consequently ill thought out and
ineffective. Stigma continues to represent a considerable
obstacle to AIDS prevention and care efforts, even in regions
such as Southern Africa where the epidemic is most widespread
and one would have expected ubiquity to have led to tolerance
and understanding |
|
|
Striking Lack of Awareness
|
"People with
hepatitis C infection deserve the same tools as those with HIV
so that they can become experts about their virus," explains
Michael Marco in the introduction to TAG's latest analysis of
hepatitis C research and treatment. |
|
|
Summary of HIV Prevalence and Sexual Behavior Findings |
This study
compares levels and trends of behavioral indicators such as
abstinence and age of sexual debut among youth, faithfulness in
sexual relationships, multiple sexual partners, and condom use. |
288 kb pdf |
|
Table of AIDS Knowledge and Attitudes
|
Youth
Indicators 1996—used in many US schools |
|
|
The Components and Impact of Stigma Associated with EAP
Counseling |
The economic
and social impact of workers with HIV/AIDS on businesses has not
waned with the increased public complacency regarding the virus
that seems to have marked the 1990s. This article provides a
general overview of the important issues surrounding
HIV-infected persons in the workplace, and provides
recommendations for employee assistance professionals concerning
both training efforts and the provision of accommodations for
persons with HIV/AIDS |
17 kb pdf
|
|
THE EXPERIENCE
OF SPECIFIC POPULATIONS |
This section
of the Paper aims to describe stigma and discrimination as
experienced by specific populations affected by the HIV epidemic
in Canada. The differentiation of populations affected by
HIV/AIDS is a social and cultural construction. Such
differentiation may itself contribute to discrimination, as when
drug users or sex workers are vilified as "vectors of disease."
On the other hand, the failure to recognize and acknowledge
publicly the experiences of a particular population in the
course of the HIV/AIDS epidemic has also led to neglect and
avoidance of that population's needs, as gay men have found in
the "de-gaying" of AIDS |
|
|
The Hidden Epidemic: Confronting Sexually Transmitted Diseases
|
There is a
tendency to look on AIDS and HIV and other sexually transmitted
diseases as issues largely of the developing world, particularly
sub-Saharan Africa and Southern and South East Asia. However,
some rich industrialised countries, particularly the United
States, have an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases (about
12 million new cases annually, of which 3 million occur in
teenagers), and no national coordinated control programme of
education and clinical services. |
|
|
The Impact of Social Isolation on STD Transmission: A
Micro-Modeling Approach to Modeling Epidemics in a Network of
Heterogeneous Actors |
Based on recent empirical findings, we investigated the
potential importance of social isolation on the spread of
HIV…Our model corroborates that social isolation as well as the
degree of social isolation are important determinants for
prevalence of HIV. |
pdf 365 kb |
|
The Impact of Stigma on Service Access and Participation
|
A guideline
developed for the Behavioral Health Recovery Management project
|
132 kb pdf
|
|
The Most Vulnerable of the Epidemic—Orphans
|
One was a
baby girl found by an orphanage in the garbage. When they
realized she had HIV, they put her back in the garbage
|
|
|
The Socio-economic Impact of HIV/AIDS on Children in a Low
Prevalence Context: the Case of Senegal |
Discusses the
socio-economic impacts of HIV/AIDS on children in Senegal as
well as the impacts of the response policies implemented by the
different actors |
92 kb pdf
|
|
The
tendency to stigmatise |
This time-honoured
propensity has probably served humankind and its
ancestors well in the service of species and related
personal survival. Such biological mechanisms as those
subserving immediate survival, the quest for food,
reproduction and related territorial needs are
presumably its foundation. Moreover, the crudity of
categorisation and labelling of related perceived
possible threats needs, constitutionally, to be safely
over-inclusive, before juggling the consequent
options of relating to, coming to dominate, fleeing
from or ignoring the source |
|
|
Through the Looking
Glass |
One of the most difficult tasks of
writing up any study is finding a title that accurately reflects
the nature and major findings of the work. In this
epidemiological study, the task is even more difficult, because
this survey is so closely linked to the class action suit and
the issue of monetary compensation of Hepatitis C positive
transfusion recipients. All sides in this legal and economic
struggle have taken considerable interest in our study's
results, because so little is currently known about the health
and socio-economic conditions of transfusion recipients. |
pdf |
|
US to investigate impact of stigma on health
|
The US is
planning an ambitious programme of research into the impact of
stigma on human health, led by part of the National Institutes
of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. |
|
|
Violence and Public Health ; A case study of recent violence in
Gujarat' |
The
discussion was centred on the break in confidence or trust of
all institutions and that there is urgent need of rebuilding
partnerships to prevent societies from fighting and breaking
apart. |
|
|
What Is Deviant Behavior? |
Is Farnham deviant for copying software illegally? Some people
would say yes, but others would say no. Is Walker deviant for
being overweight? Again, some people would agree, but others
would disagree. In fact, some would say that it is her
tormentors—the so-called normal people—who are deviant because
they are grossly insensitive, nasty, or cruel. There is, in
fact, a great deal of disagreement among people as to what they
consider deviant. In a classic study, J. L. Simmons (1965) asked
a sample of the general public who they thought was deviant.
They mentioned 252 different kinds of people as deviants,
including prostitutes, alcoholics, drug users, murderers, the
mentally ill, the physically challenged, communists, atheists,
liars, Democrats, Republicans, reckless drivers, self-pitiers,
the retired, divorcees, Christians, suburbanites, movie stars,
per petual bridge players, pacifists, psychiatrists, priests,
liberals, conservatives, junior exec utives, smart-aleck
students, and know-it-all professors. If you are surprised that
some of these people are considered deviant, your surprise
simply adds to the fact that there is a good deal of
disagreement among the public as to the conception of deviant
behavior. |
|
|
Widespread stigma undermining international AIDS promises |
"Stigma and discrimination are the two major hurdles that
continue to hamper rehabilitation of people infected and
affected by HIV in India," says India contributor Swapna
Majumdar. "For women and girls the degree and impact of this
stigma is even more acute." |
|
|
Work Injuries and Illnesses Occurring to Women
|
Report on
work injuries and illnesses occurring to women |
43 kb pdf
|
** In order to
view PDF files, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your
computer. Many computers already have this software; however, if you
need it, a free copy is available for download at this site:
Click
here to get Adobe Acrobat Reader.
