Women living with HIV/AIDS: the dual challenge of being a patient and caregiver.

More than 60,000 women in the United States have been diagnosed with AIDS, and millions of women worldwide are infected with HIV. Most of these women will die at an early age, leaving their children motherless. During their HIV illness, women confront the challenge of being both patient and family caregiver. Little research has explored this dual challenge. The authors conducted semistructured one-hour interviews with HIV-positive women that focused on the impact of the HIV diagnosis on the women's lives. Significant factors emerging from the interviews included the impact of stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, disbelief of the diagnosis, the lack of a guardian for their children, the paucity of women's support groups, and barriers associated with seeking services. All women exhibited evidence of clinical depression. A model for multidisciplinary intervention is proposed that focuses on women's needs within their family systems.