Biomedical subjects

N L Beckerman

Publications and source records attributed to N L Beckerman.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Key emotional issues for couples of mixed HIV status.

With more effective treatment advances, long term HIV survivors are turning their attention back towards career and relationship. Based on a research study (N = 82) this article provides a preliminary overview of the key emotional experiences of being in a primary relationship of mixed HIV status. The article reviews relevant literature on emotional stresses and challenges facing the individual in such a relationship and reports on the study's quantitative and qualitative findings on the subject. Regardless of serostatus, sexual orientation or gender, key issues clearly emerged for this population. They are fearful of HIV transmission, impact of uncertainty, an increase in emotional closeness due to HIV as well as an inevitable emotional distance due to the difference in HIV status. Secondary issues included reproductive dilemmas and struggles given one partner's HIV status and difficulty with disclosing a partner's HIV positive status to others. Implications for social workers in health care are provided.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2000

A shift in HIV reporting practices: a biopolitical analysis.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mainstream medical journals and many state legislatures are calling for a drastic shift in what has become standard HIV reporting practice throughout the United States (Burke, 1997; Richardson, 1997a; Rotello, 1997). We are now experiencing a challenge to the long held practice of confidential and anonymous HIV reporting (Grumman, 1997; Richardson, 1998). The federal government, the American Medical Association and several major AIDS organizations have supported state level proposals that require public health officials to adopt name reporting, i.e., monitoring HIV by name not by number (Richardson, 1997b; Richardson, 1997c; Kong, 1997). With number identification, the practice commonly used, there is no link made between number and the patient's name thus assuring anonymity. This article details this shift in public health policy and the biopolitical factors surrounding HIV testing and reporting. This shift is one in which the "duty to warn" takes precedence over the long held professional value of confidentiality.

AIDS Serodiagnosis↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Suicide in relation to AIDS.

One of the array of clinical and ethical challenges faced by the practitioner who works with people with AIDS is dealing with clients who feel they prefer the option of suicide to living with the disease. The many dimensions of suicide among the terminally ill, including preemptive, surcease, and rational suicide, are explored. The critical issues addressed are the incidence of suicide in HIV-positive individuals, contributing factors associated with the risk of suicide among people with HIV/AIDS, and the clinical and ethical implications of this issue for the practitioner.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗