Health workers in Ghana not negative towards HIV patients

26 January 2012

WOTRO researcher Jonathan Mensah Dapaah received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam on 24 January 2012 for his study on the way in which HIV/aids is treated in Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) centres and Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) clinics in two health care centres in Ghana. These services are becoming increasingly accessible, but fewer patients make use of these services than expected.

Dapaah investigated how health workers approach patients and what their attitudes towards people with HIV/aids are. He also looked at issues such as privacy in counselling, confidentiality, testing and treatment. Perhaps even more so than with other diseases, the social context of HIV influences how services are offered and used.

Dapaah proves that, contrary to popular belief, health care workers do not have a negative attitude towards patients. He emphasizes the ‘correctness’ of the procedures applied by health workers which encourages the use of these services. Offering first class HIV counselling, testing and treatment can result in an increase in the use of these services as is shown in the study.

According to Dapaah, it is crucial to treat clients well during interactions in health care centres and clinics to ensure that a larger number of patients and others will use these services. This can be a first step towards reducing the experienced stigmatization associated with the use of services offered by hospitals which prevents many from visiting VCT or ART clinics.

Jonathan Mensah Dapaah, HIV/aids treatment in two Ghanaian hospitals. Experiences of patients, nurses and doctors. Published by the African Studies Centre, Leiden.

A copy of the dissertation (€15,00) can be ordered by email.

Source: University of Amsterdam