Nenita L. Ortega, RMT MA Jjose NMC Sescon, MD FPOGS
Kaagapay Support Group for PLWHAs*, Remedios AIDS Fdn.**, Pinoy Plus Assn.***

ADDRESSING CARE AND SUPPORT FOR PLWHAS: TEAM APPROACH VS. CASE MANAGEMENT APPROACH

ISSUE:

Being a person living with HIV/AIDS in the Philippines is not easy. You are confronted with a lot of socio-economic, psychological, medical, ethical-legal issues. Access to a holistic approach to care and support is hard for few reasons: 1) services are concentrated in the city, 2) there are no affordable access to antiretrovirals, if ever there are it is not sustainable, 3) fear of being disclosed, 4) maintaining the asymptomatic stage is very expensive, 5) non acceptance by immediate families thus non support.

DESCRIPTION:

Considering the local situation on care and support in the country to be as such, it was found out that no single person or agency will be able to address and give an answer to the so called holistic approach to care and support of PWAs. Each of the existing agencies and organizations in the Philippines have components of this care and support. We learned from our own experience that the need for networking and a strong base for referral system should be in place. In this way a PWA with specific concern can be referred. Team approach works best as there are several agencies and individuals helping and supporting a positive individual without getting burnt out on the part of the caregiver. This opposes the case management system where a caregiver solely helps and supports a positive individual, uses up all his time and effort alone to a single positive person and eventually get burnt out.

RESULTS:

Team approach to addressing care and support service for PWAs is more appropriate in a resource limited setting like the Philippines. This involve more committed individuals and agencies with their own line of expertise and available services. Team approach minimizes burnt out of caregivers, allowing more PWAs being attended to by available carers. Team approach gives more good and quality services as it taps agencies with resources that can help PWAs.