Loss and Trauma Among HIV/AIDS Workers Working with Children

Abstract

In this discourse analytic article I illustrate, first, how a group of HIV/AIDS workers working with children constructed such children as innocent and suffering the loss of an ideal childhood and, second, how the HIV/AIDS workers held adults accountable for the children's loss of an ideal childhood. I conclude the article by proposing that, given that inflicted interpersonal traumas are considered more harmful, the implication of participants’ constructions for HIV/AIDS workers is a potentially perpetuated emotional strain and traumatic experience.

KEYWORDS:

• discourse analysis
• HIV/AIDS
• ideal childhood
• lost childhood
• social construction

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to the individuals within the organization in question as well as at the University of Edinburgh—where this research was carried out—who were involved in and supportive of this research in one way or another. I would also like to extend my gratitude to professors Andy McKinlay and Chris McVittie for their invaluable assistance.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vania Ranjbar

Vania Ranjbar works in research and development at Angered Hospital and the University of Gothenburg. Her main research area of interest is psychological trauma; in particular, she is interested in sexual traumatization and secondary traumatization.