Counselling for Psychological Well-Being in Persons Living with HIV/AIDS

Abstract

A psychological well-being counselling program, which provided person centered, group counselling interventions for inpatients infected with HIV/AIDS was evaluated at Amangwe therapeutic village in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The aim was to improve the psychological well-being of participants (9 male, 21 female; age range 26 to 63 years; Zulu ethnicity). Outcome data were collected using the Ryff (1989) Psychological Well-being Scale and analyzed using repeated measure analysis of variance. Patients' psychological well-being scores indicated significant improvements in perceptions of autonomy, personal growth, environmental mastery, positive relations with others and self-acceptance when compared with a conveniently selected, student control group.

Keywords:

• Psychological well-being
• person centered counselling
• support groups
• HIV and AIDS
• program evaluation