Caring For The Carers

This study describes the subjective experiences and coping strategies of HIV and AIDS primary caregivers. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were employed to generate data, which were analysed using the thematic content analysis. The results of the participants' experiences and coping strategies consisted of four dominant themes, which contained the essential meanings of participants' accounts. When it comes to caring for people with HIV and AIDS, the richest resource a country has is, without question, the compassion of its people. It is an extraordinary fact that some of the most effective programmes are found in the poorest communities, where care is delivered by people who not only earn nothing for their services but risk sliding deeper into poverty themselves because of the time they devote to this cause. Caregivers of PLWH fulfill an important component of care in developing countries. They provide care that enables PLWH to have some hope, if not of survival, of being cared for with love and dignity. The results of the study also revealed that caring for an HIV infected individual is emotionally, psychologically, physically, socially and financially taxing