This NIH-supported study of HIV's physical and psychosocial impacts offers both practical and inspiring accounts of how individuals living with HIV respond and cope with the disease and its progressive stages and impacts. The longitudinal approach of the research and the rich resources offered by extensive interviews with the persons with HIV and those closest to them avail the reader of insights and responses that should improve others' coping and caring abilities.The author's professional experience and extensive research informs the work throughout and fashions a remarkable and moving synthesis of the themes that will help those living with AIDS as well as all who relate to them. From the first awareness of infection to coping with bereavement, this book honestly, sensitively, and substantively addresses the essential concerns that any and all who are touched by the HIV pandemic must reflect on.

This is an immensely sensitive and substantive account of the impact the AIDS epidemic has had on the individuals living with it and the responses of those who share their lives as family members, loved ones, or professional caregivers. The purpose of the NIH-supported study is to identify physical and psychosocial problems associated with HIV.

ForewordPrefaceThe World of HIV InfectionThe Study Participants: Choosing to Live with HIVThe Families: The Ties that BindThe Professional CaregiversEarly Adaptation to HIVThe Survivors: A Typology of Coping Styles in Living with HIVCoping with Death and BereavementBibliographyIndex