Integrating family into the care process
Family stands as the crucial interface between the individual (HIV+ve) and the community. Therefore, they form an integral part of the care and rehabilitation package at Freedom Foundation. Family members are counseled at the centre to accept its HIV+ve member. Information about the disease is provided, discussions are held on sex, sexuality and other taboo subjects. Thus family therapy eventually helps the family of people dealing with HIV/AIDS cope and live with the disease as best as possible.
De-addiction & AIDS
Freedom Foundation has noticed the connection between alcoholism, drug-addiction and AIDS for some time now. Statistical analysis of records (1997-99, first quarter) clearly illustrates the trend. Of the total number of admission as many as 50.9% were alcoholics and an additional 3.8% were drug-addicts.
It was also noticed that for many of these HIV+ve alcoholics, alcohol became a defense mechanism to cope with the harsh reality of their disease. It is in this context that the de-addiction centre run by FF plays a key role. Patients are first sent to this centre for treatment of substance abuse, and only then treated and counselled for their sero-positive status.
Other medical & referral facilities include:
- Regular supply of newspaper, magazines, books, etc. There is a television, a VCR for audio-visual inputs on AIDS as well as, for recreation and entertainment.
- Daily residential yoga therapy by a trained yoga teacher.
- All cultural festivals are celebrated at the centre with equal importance.
- Regular outings are organized for both adults and children so that clients have an opportunity to interact with other service providers, institutions and the outside world at large.
Restoring sense of normalcy
Over and above everything else the care home attempts to rehabilitate its clients by trying to restore a sense of normalcy and purpose in the life of its sero-positive patients. They are encouraged to participate more actively in the daily day-to-day
running of the centre. In fact, many of the care givers of the centre are positive clients themselves. Women clients help out in the kitchen and the wards. The beautiful gardens surrounding the care home is also almost entirely a product of the effort of the patients.
In order to foster economic self-sufficiency and empowerment of people living with HIV/AIDS, education and vocational training is provided in activities like tailoring, and candle-making. A separate work shed has been erected at the care home for the production of decorative candles, greetings, cards and paper covers.
All these require only light physical work but encourage creativity and positive feelings. Simultaneously, it provides the clients with some means of becoming self-sufficient economically. This makes attempts of their eventual rehabilitation in society a more practical possibility.
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