| dc.description.abstract | Background: Parental HIV disclosure is a challenging task for parents living with HIV due to
stigma shame and fear of unknown responses from children. Counselors usually offer guidance
and counseling on such sensitive issues and help parents with disclosing. However, most parents
today are hesitant to disclose their HIV status to their children despite its benefits like; Care,
emotional support, child reduction of risky behaviors, treatment support and many others.
Objectives: To explore counselor’s perspectives and experiences regarding parental HIV
disclosure to their children.
Methods: A descriptive qualitative study design was used. In-depth interviews were conducted
with 17 counselors. Nine of them were from Gombe and eight from Mpigi hospital’s respectively
with an experience of 2 years and above. The interviews were conducted in Luganda and each
took15-30minutes. Data was audio recorded, transcribed, translated and content analyzed. The
findings were presented in structured narratives. Results: Results were derived from two main themes including experiences of counselors which
comprised of three subthemes which were; Disclosure is difficult, approaches and consequences of
disclosure. Counselors initiated the topic of parental disclosure to parents. They granted parents
time to work through their fears and challenges that were hindering disclosure. When they made
up their minds, parents consulted counselors privately for help and guidance. They facilitated
disclosure after a parents’ voluntary decision and were successful. They used personal experiences
and guided parents on the different methods of disclosure like verbal confessions, keeping and
swallowing medicines in open among others. Consequences were positive and negative. Positives
included children caring for parents, good behavioral change, relief. Negatives were regrets,
crying, and rejection and so on. The second theme comprised of two sub themes; perspectives on
disclosure and non disclosure which included; disclosure is good, it prompts children to test, can
be used for sex education while non disclosure is burdening, hinders acquisition of help from
children, blame to parents, causes poor adherence among others.
Conclusion: Counselors initiated parental disclosure to parents and guided parents on the methods
of disclosing. Key words: Experiences, perspectives, parental disclosure. | en_US |
