{"id":16012,"date":"2017-01-18T10:50:39","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T15:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cachc.ca\/?p=16012"},"modified":"2021-11-15T10:01:52","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T15:01:52","slug":"occupational-therapy-services-at-a-chc-for-people-living-with-hiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cachc.ca\/fr\/occupational-therapy-services-at-a-chc-for-people-living-with-hiv\/","title":{"rendered":"Occupational therapy services at a CHC for people living with HIV"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"An efficient health-care system includes services for people with chronic and episodic conditions within primary care (Aggarwal\u00a0& Hutchison, 2012). Services delivered within primary care and primary health care contexts allow practitioners to offer timely\u00a0interventions in regards to prevention, self-management and health promotion (McColl & Dickenson, 2009). Due to its role as the entry point to health services, primary health care is a privileged setting to address a broad spectrum of needs and coordinate different health and community services (Canadian Working Group on HIV and Rehabilitation [CWGHR] & Wellesley Institute, 2012).<\/span><\/p>\n

As such, primary health care service delivery allows for a forward thinking approach that can delay or prevent avoidable treatments and reduce the risk of emergency or crisis situations, and hospital admissions (CWGHR & Wellesley Institute, 2012; Tran, 2004). Finally, primary health care services are usually offered over an extended period of time, which can help foster the development of trust between practitioners and their clients. This kind of relationship can facilitate the disclosure of sensitive issues such as substance use and psychological difficulties (CWGHR, 2009) and provide opportunities to find long-term management strategies, which are essential when working with people with chronic and episodic conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

An example of a chronic condition: human immunodeficiency virus<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe advent of antiretroviral therapy has tremendously increased the life expectancy of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to the point that this condition is now considered a chronic and episodic condition (World Health Organization, 2002). However, compared to the general population, people living with HIV are at greater risk of developing other chronic conditions such as renal failure, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, and are developing those conditions at an earlier age than people not infected by HIV (Guaraldi et al., 2011). Consequently, they face several challenges in performing daily occupations (see Table 1). <\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most\u00a0<\/span>prominent challenges for people living with HIV is linked to episodic disability (Tran, Thomas, Cameron, & Bone, 2007), which is the experience of uncontrolled and unpredictable limitations in performing productive, self-care and leisure activities. These occupational challenges are thus likely to prevent someone from fully engaging in significant life roles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Table 1. Challenges experienced by people living with HIV<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Body function<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n