Assessment of effectiveness of coping enhancement interventions on ways of coping and depressionamong people living with HIV: A study from HIV community care centre in Tamil Nadu

Pages: 1373-1375
Dhanalakshmi, S. R. (Research & Development Centre, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore)
Kanagasabapathy, V. (GLRA India, Chennai)
Santhanam, T. (Senior Faculty, SDS Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Chennai)
Subramanian, S. (Department of Psychology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore)

The experience of being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS is extremely stressful and therefore HIV and psychiatric diagnoses are often co-morbid. Over the past decade, significant medical advances have ensured better treatment for people living with HIV but significant challenges remain in dealing with the depression coping with the disease. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of coping enhancement interventions on ways of coping and depression among People Living with HIV (PLHIV). Quasi-experimentalstudy was conducted among adult PLHIV (aged 18 years and above) attending a Community Care Centre (CCC) at Perambulur in Tamil Nadu. The study participants were selected from the PLHIV registered at the Centre within 2 years of the commencement of the study.Coping was assessed using’ Concern and Coping with HIV scale (Vosvick, Martin, Smith, & Jenkins, 2008) CCHIV Scale. Depression was assessed using Hamilton Depression Scale. Coping enhancement intervention included group counseling on health, education and financial issues and also included a step-wise problem solving process wherein PLHIV’s major issues in health problems, educational problems, and financial problems were provided with probable options to solve identified problems and followed up. Specifically, it addressed physical health issues such as education about HIV/AIDS, nutrition, adherence to medications, psychological issues such as worries related to HIV, stigma, disclosure, anger, etc. and livelihood concerns such as education, finance, hopes for the future of their family – the predominant therapies in the coping intervention was cognitive behavioral. The post-intervention assessment interview was administered 6 months after the intervention. The intervention was effective in improving adaptive coping behaviour and decreasing the severity of depressive symptoms. As a result of the intervention, there was a decline in the maladaptive coping behavior but it was not found to be statistically significant. Increasing age and being illiterate were associated with higher level of improvement in positive growth from pre to post intervention (R2=0.56; p<0.01). Thus, interventions to enhance coping can contribute significantly to the psychological well-being of PLHIV.