Management, Prevention and Intervention Plans for AIDS || Health Psychology:

 
In this article, you will learn about Management, 
Prevention, and Intervention Plans for AIDS in Health Psychology. Health psychologist provides both primary and secondary prevention efforts.

Role of Health Psychology in Management of AIDS:

Health psychology is the branch of psychology that deals with individual behaviors, and lifestyles that affect an individual’s physical health. Health psychology majorly includes:

•      psychology’s contributions to the betterment of     health
•      prevention and treatment of disease
•      identification of health risk factors
•      improvement of the health care system
•       shaping of the public opinion with regards to health

Prevention of AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) in Health Psychology:

Health Psychologists through counseling have had an important role in combating the spread of the infection (Kelly, 2002). Health psychologist provides both primary and secondary prevention efforts.

•      Primary prevention includes changing behaviors or lifestyles to decrease HIV transmission.
•       Secondary prevention includes helping people who are HIV positive to live with the infection, helping patients deal with social and interpersonal aspects of the disease, and helping patients adhere to their complicated treatment programs.

Interventions for AIDS in Health Psychology:

·      People who are diagnosed with HIV positive go through a series of emotional reactions. A health psychologist can be appointed to communicate the test results appropriately to the patients to minimize negative effects.

•       Health psychologists provide awareness to ensure early testing, early treatment, and lifestyle modification.
•       Health psychologist helps AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) patients adhere to the complicated medical regimens designed to control HIV infections.
•       There is no cure for AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), death will eventually come, so the health psychologist assists the patient to develop a sense of purpose and a plan for minimizing the anxiety that is very problematic to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome)  patients.
•       Health psychologists also provide counseling to family members of AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) patients to establish family support.