“I'm positively positive”: Beyond individual responsibility for resilience amongst older adults living with HIV

Abstract

In British Columbia (BC), Canada, older adults living with HIV (OALHIV — i.e., age ≥50) now constitute over 50% of all people accessing HIV treatment. In addition to living with HIV, OALHIV face significant adversity from sociostructural factors. Popular notions of resilience view resilience as an individual attribute (Coutu, 2002), commonly placing the responsibility for overcoming adversity on the individual. This community-based research on the home and community care of OALHIV involved semi-structured interviews with 27 OALHIV in BC. Interviews were analyzed thematically. Resilience was a key theme across 23 of the 27 interviews with OALHIV. This research moves beyond an individualistic notion of resilience to discuss interpersonal, neighbourhood/community, and multi-levels of resilience, including the importance of public policy and epidemic levels of resilience led by government and healthcare organizations to support OALHIV and the general population to age with dignity.

Keywords

• HIV
• AIDS
• Older adults
• Resilience
• Ageing
• Home and community care