Hope and coping in care givers of HIV/AIDS and cancer patients

Pages: 1459-1462
Suneetha J. Hangal (Department of Psychology S.K.Arts College & H.S.K Science Institute Hubli, Karnataka)
Deepa L. Hunagund (Department of Psychology Karnatak University Dharwad, Karnataka)

Health is a great treasure and everyone is in pursuit of the same. The present life style has deluded the individuals far from health, both physical and mental. The HIV/AIDS and cancer epidemic has an enormous impact on all aspects of life of not only the patients but also their family members. The care takers of these patients undergo a lot of stress, feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and difficulty in coping. The present study aims at finding out the feelings of hope and coping in the care takers of fatal diseases like HIV/AIDS and cancer. A sample of 80 care takers (HIV/AIDS and cancer patients) was personally contacted and administered Adult Hope Scale by Snyder and Anderson (1991) and COPE Inventory by Carver et al. (1989). The findings of this study revealed that caregivers of cancer patients have significantly higher hope compared to the caregivers of HIV/AIDS. And they also differ significantly in their coping strategies. The caregivers of cancer patients use more problem focused coping and the caregivers of HIV/AIDS patients adopt more emotional focused and dysfunctional coping strategies. Implications are discussed.