The Changing Face of AIDS: Implications for Social Work Practice

This edited collection discusses the current demographic patterns and notes the rapid and startling spread of AIDS/HIV to new populations―including women, adolescents, the mentally ill, substance abusers, and minorities. In a practical manner, each contributor establishes guidelines for need definition, effective service delivery, and case practice among different population segments. This is a valuable book providing experienced-based direction and hope because of its agenda for AIDS/HIV education and action among those in social work practice.

Social work practitioners active among those most directly involved with persons with AIDS/HIV need guidance and support. This volume offers both in a balanced analysis of key issues relating to their practice. The authors clearly and authoritatively establish that the demographics of the AIDS/HIV crisis are undergoing change rapidly and alarmingly.

Although there have been significant advances in education about AIDS and modifications in sexual practices among gay men resulting in a lowered rate of new infection, other groups are shown to be evidencing explosive levels of infection. Not only are the population parameters of AIDS defined, but the fundamental issues of social service delivery are addressed as are the special needs of the newly at-risk groups. Women, adolescents, substance abusers, minorities, and the mentally ill are all in the demographic patterns describing AIDS/HIV diffusion. The most compelling AIDS care issues are directly focused on and practical guidance is given to social work practitioners. AIDS/HIV poses a sometimes daunting challenge threatening to overwhelm service providers. This book will be of value due to its sensitive, insightful, experience-based guidance at the level of practice. It will also prove a useful resource for all in the caring professions who will appreciate its timely explanation of the complexities involved in framing effective responses to current and emerging needs associated with AIDS/HIV.

VINCENT J. LYNCH is Director of Continuing Education and Lecturer at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work. He founded the Annual International Conference on Social Work and AIDS, which has been held continuously since 1989. He continues to serve as principal organizer for that conference. He also has served as a liaison on HIV/AIDS issues to the International Federation of Social Workers, Geneva, Switzerland, and to the International Association of Schools of Social Work, Vienna, Austria.

GARY A. LLOYD is Professor and Director of the HIV Institute at the Tulane University School of Social Work. He has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization's Global Programme on AIDS and was among the very first group of social workers to focus their professional energies in the area of AIDS care. He was the 1990 recipient of the Social Worker of the Year Award, presented by the National Association of Social Workers. He serves as organizer for the Annual International Conference on Social Work and AIDS.

MANUEL F. FIMBRES is Professor at the San Jose State University School of Social Work. He, with Carl G. Leukefeld, co-authored a social work classic in AIDS care, Responding to AIDS: Psychosocial Initiatives (1987). He is among the very first group of social workers to become actively involved in AIDS care, and his current area of special interest is the development of HIV prevention and educational services in communities of color. He has served on the Board of the National AIDS Minority Council, Washington, D.C. He also serves as an organizer for the Annual International Conference on Social Work and AIDS.