Status disclosure for adolescents with HIV

Abstract

The number of Adolescents with HIV in Indonesia in these last 4 years continuously increases. This condition brings new prospect that children who are born with HIV have better life expectancy with its following complexities. One of the biggest challenges is the issue of disclosure status. This study employs action research approach to reveal better alternative patterns of disclosure for revealing HIV status of adolescents. The results of the study show that the disclosure status will be successful if the adolescents and primary caregivers have a high level of readiness both on cognitive, affective, psychomotor, existential-spiritual, and social aspects. When the combination of these is not less than 8, the disclosure process can be predicted to succeed. If it is less than that, it would be better off to prepare all those eight aspects. Authors argue disclosure status is not only determined by who does that, rather adolescents and caregiver must be parallel prepared and ready to disclose. Therefore, it is important to assess readiness before the disclosure status process is carried out.