Ideological schisms about HIV/AIDS helping systems in the African American community, with an emphasis on women

J Evid Based Soc Work. 2010 Oct;7(5):412-30. doi: 10.1080/15433711003673891.

Abstract

This article is an initial exploration about the impact of ideological beliefs on helping services in the African American community. Newly infected HIV/AIDS cases place African Americans at 45% of such new cases, with African American women becoming infected at a rate 18 times that of Whites. Yet, helping services that are organic to African American women should be stronger through a discussion of cultural beliefs held in the community, where the genesis of helping services exists. Values and beliefs should be at the center of community partnerships, public media strategies, generalist-practice curricula in macro-level systems, and creating more space for relationship dialogue between African American men and women, which includes gender and racial distortions. Given the exponentially high numbers of HIV/AIDS cases in the African American community, a more earnest examination of values and beliefs is warranted.

MeSH terms

  • Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / ethnology
  • Black or African American*
  • Community-Institutional Relations
  • Cultural Characteristics
  • Female
  • HIV Infections / ethnology*
  • Health Education / organization & administration
  • Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mass Media
  • Politics
  • Prejudice
  • Religion
  • Sex Factors
  • Social Work / organization & administration*