The Association of Trauma with the Physical, Behavioral, and Social Health of Women Living with HIV: Pathways to Guide Trauma-informed Health Care Interventions

The questionnaire has been developed from a validated instrument “Women’s Experience of Maternity Care” (author - National Health Service, (Great Britain, 2019) and adapted to the situation in Latvia. The permission to use it has been obtained from authors. The questionnaire is meant for women regardless of their health status during the perinatal period or who have no co-morbidities, diagnosed in perinatal period of care. The questionnaire is designed to find out patients' experiences of receiving healthcare and its compliance with the guidelines, identifying potential problems and creating opportunities to correct them. There were 50 patients in Maternity Hospital postpartum unit interviewed. 12 of them were women living with HIV. Results. One of five main comment themes was - patients felt the need to receive the same kind of information about the same issue from all health care professional regardless of staff changes on call. The women point out that they have no problems with content in communication process during intranatal period, at labor unit. The problem with different kind of information about the same matter is emerging in postpartum period, at maternity unit. This issue is bothering both groups of patients in postnatal period, those women who live with HIV and those who have no co-morbidities, diagnosed in perinatal period. This shows that there is different kind of knowledge and professional skills among health care professionals, even if they work in the same field, the same hospital and the same unit. There should be done more research to identify the source of this problem. Is it the different experience, knowledge, informational field where professionals seek for information or totally different reason for this phenomena.

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The Dark Side of Female HIV Patient Care: Sexual and Reproductive Health Risks in Pre- and Post-Clinical Treatments

Journal of Clinical Medicine ◽

10.3390/jcm7110402 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 (11) ◽

pp. 402 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Thu Khuat ◽

Thu Do ◽

Van Nguyen ◽

Xuan Vu ◽

Phuong Nguyen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

High Risk ◽

Reproductive Health ◽

Sexual And Reproductive Health ◽

Hiv Care ◽

High Risk Population ◽

People Living With Hiv ◽

Women Living With Hiv ◽

Women And Girls ◽

Living With Hiv

This study examines the pre- and post-clinical issues in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care and treatment for women and girls of high-risk population groups—namely sex workers, injecting drug users, women living with HIV, primary sexual partners of people living with HIV, adolescent girls who are children of these groups, and migrant young girls and women—in five provinces and cities in Vietnam. Through a sample of 241 surveyed participants and 48 respondents for in-depth interviews and 32 respondents in the focus group discussions, the study identifies multiple barriers that keep these groups from receiving the proper health care that is well within their human rights. Most respondents rated HIV testing as easily accessible, yet only 18.9% of the surveyed women living with HIV disclosed their infection status, while 37.8% gave no information at the most recent prenatal care visit. The level of knowledge and proper practices of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care also remains limited. Meanwhile, modern birth control methods have yet to be widely adopted among these populations: only 30.7% of respondents reported using condoms when having sex with their husband. This increases the risks of unwanted pregnancy and abortion, as well as vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV transmission. On the other hand, HIV-related stigma and discrimination at health care settings are still pervasive, which create significant barriers for patients to access proper care services. Based on these results, six recommendations to improve SRH status of women and girls of populations at high risk are put forward.

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