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“The Peer Educator Is the Game-Changer of My Life”: Perceptions of Adolescents Living with HIV in DR Congo on Involving Peer Educators in the Process of HIV Disclosure

Several approaches to the disclosure of HIV status to children and adolescents have been described. Each of these places particular emphasis on the role of parents and health care workers (HCWs) to mitigate the impact of disclosure on the adolescent without exploring the possible roles that other in...

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Autores principales: Kitetele, Faustin Nd., Lelo, Gilbert M., Akele, Cathy E., Lelo, Patricia V. M., Mafuta, Eric M., Tylleskär, Thorkild, Kashala-Abotnes, Espérance
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9406301/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36010129
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9081239
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author Kitetele, Faustin Nd.
Lelo, Gilbert M.
Akele, Cathy E.
Lelo, Patricia V. M.
Mafuta, Eric M.
Tylleskär, Thorkild
Kashala-Abotnes, Espérance
author_facet Kitetele, Faustin Nd.
Lelo, Gilbert M.
Akele, Cathy E.
Lelo, Patricia V. M.
Mafuta, Eric M.
Tylleskär, Thorkild
Kashala-Abotnes, Espérance
author_sort Kitetele, Faustin Nd.
collection PubMed
description Several approaches to the disclosure of HIV status to children and adolescents have been described. Each of these places particular emphasis on the role of parents and health care workers (HCWs) to mitigate the impact of disclosure on the adolescent without exploring the possible roles that other individuals might play in the process of disclosure. This article assesses the perceptions of adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) about disclosure done by parents, guardians, HCWs, peer educators in the role of peer supporters, accidentally or by self-discovery, and the subsequent effects of disclosure method on their mental health. We used a qualitative study to conduct semi-structured interviews with 73 ALHIV at the Kalembelembe Paediatric Hospital, in DR Congo disclosed to by parents, guardians, HCWs, and/or peer educators, respectively, or disclosed to accidentally or by self-discovery. Microsoft Excel analysis matrix was used to organize the qualitative data. The majority of ALHIV whose disclosure involved a peer educator unanimously acknowledged the important role of the peer in accepting their HIV status, in their ART adherence, and their development of self-esteem. However, most ALHIV disclosed without involving peers declared that they had accepted their situation after a relatively long period followed by contact with the peer and integration in the self-support group. We found that the peer approach is the game-changer of the HIV status disclosure process that would allow ALHIV to accept their HIV status with minimum distress, it builds resilience, and allows them to adhere to treatment.
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spelling pubmed-94063012022-08-26 “The Peer Educator Is the Game-Changer of My Life”: Perceptions of Adolescents Living with HIV in DR Congo on Involving Peer Educators in the Process of HIV Disclosure Kitetele, Faustin Nd. Lelo, Gilbert M. Akele, Cathy E. Lelo, Patricia V. M. Mafuta, Eric M. Tylleskär, Thorkild Kashala-Abotnes, Espérance Children (Basel) Article Several approaches to the disclosure of HIV status to children and adolescents have been described. Each of these places particular emphasis on the role of parents and health care workers (HCWs) to mitigate the impact of disclosure on the adolescent without exploring the possible roles that other individuals might play in the process of disclosure. This article assesses the perceptions of adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) about disclosure done by parents, guardians, HCWs, peer educators in the role of peer supporters, accidentally or by self-discovery, and the subsequent effects of disclosure method on their mental health. We used a qualitative study to conduct semi-structured interviews with 73 ALHIV at the Kalembelembe Paediatric Hospital, in DR Congo disclosed to by parents, guardians, HCWs, and/or peer educators, respectively, or disclosed to accidentally or by self-discovery. Microsoft Excel analysis matrix was used to organize the qualitative data. The majority of ALHIV whose disclosure involved a peer educator unanimously acknowledged the important role of the peer in accepting their HIV status, in their ART adherence, and their development of self-esteem. However, most ALHIV disclosed without involving peers declared that they had accepted their situation after a relatively long period followed by contact with the peer and integration in the self-support group. We found that the peer approach is the game-changer of the HIV status disclosure process that would allow ALHIV to accept their HIV status with minimum distress, it builds resilience, and allows them to adhere to treatment. MDPI 2022-08-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9406301/ /pubmed/36010129 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9081239 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kitetele, Faustin Nd.
Lelo, Gilbert M.
Akele, Cathy E.
Lelo, Patricia V. M.
Mafuta, Eric M.
Tylleskär, Thorkild
Kashala-Abotnes, Espérance
“The Peer Educator Is the Game-Changer of My Life”: Perceptions of Adolescents Living with HIV in DR Congo on Involving Peer Educators in the Process of HIV Disclosure
title “The Peer Educator Is the Game-Changer of My Life”: Perceptions of Adolescents Living with HIV in DR Congo on Involving Peer Educators in the Process of HIV Disclosure
title_full “The Peer Educator Is the Game-Changer of My Life”: Perceptions of Adolescents Living with HIV in DR Congo on Involving Peer Educators in the Process of HIV Disclosure
title_fullStr “The Peer Educator Is the Game-Changer of My Life”: Perceptions of Adolescents Living with HIV in DR Congo on Involving Peer Educators in the Process of HIV Disclosure
title_full_unstemmed “The Peer Educator Is the Game-Changer of My Life”: Perceptions of Adolescents Living with HIV in DR Congo on Involving Peer Educators in the Process of HIV Disclosure
title_short “The Peer Educator Is the Game-Changer of My Life”: Perceptions of Adolescents Living with HIV in DR Congo on Involving Peer Educators in the Process of HIV Disclosure
title_sort “the peer educator is the game-changer of my life”: perceptions of adolescents living with hiv in dr congo on involving peer educators in the process of hiv disclosure
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9406301/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36010129
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9081239
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