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Disclosure
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Disclosure or telling people that you or your child are HIV positive is very difficult. Even telling a child who was infected at birth that they are HIV positive can be very hard on both the parent and the child. Families take many different approaches to tell their child that they are HIV positive. Many parents feel that if a child knows that they are HIV positive from a very young age, they adjust better. However, young children often tell private information without knowing that the parent does not want the information known to everyone. Some parents prefer to wait until the child is older and can understand more about HIV. It is the policy of our clinic to let the parents decide how and when a child should be told about their HIV status. The health care team will not tell a child unless requested to do so by the parent or caregiver. However, we are available to help and support this decision in any way possible. It is important that the child find out their HIV status from someone they trust and someone who knows what they are talking about so all questions may be accurately answered. For disclosure to the rest of the world, there are laws that state that no one has to disclose their HIV status to anyone except to health care providers and sexual partners. This is to guarantee that health care providers can fully evaluate the patient and order appropriate tests and treatment. Sexual partners must be informed so that precautions can be taken to protect themselves from infection. Situations arise where it becomes a good idea to disclose your child’s status to a select group of people. If someone is taking your child to an activity that is high risk to their health, the chaperone should be notified. If your child is bringing medication into a facility or to someone’s house, the adult chaperone should be notified. All other disclosure should be decided by the patient and family, although medical research has shown that patients who have a few people in their support group who know their HIV status tend to stay healthier for longer periods of time. While it should not happen and is against the law, there may be times when telling someone your HIV status may result in them treating you badly, hurting your feelings, or discriminating against you. This usually comes from fear of other people about things they do not know very much about. Please feel free to share such experiences with the health care team so that we may offer support and suggestions. [Keywords:HIV] |
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