Family and HIV/AIDS : Cultural and Contextual Issues in Prevention and Treatment

Three decades into the HIV pandemic, the goals remain clear: reduce the number of infections,improve the health outcomes of those who are infected, and eliminate disparities in care. And one observation continues to gain credence: families are a powerful resource in preventing, adapting to, and coping with HIV.  Recognizing their complex role as educators, mentors, and caregivers, Family and HIV/AIDS assembles a wealth of findings from successful prevention and intervention strategies and provides models for translating evidence into effective real-world practice. Chapters spotlight the differing roles of mothers and fathers in prevention efforts, clarify the need for family/community collaborations, and examine core issues of culture,ethnicity, gender, and diagnosis (e.g., minority families, adolescents with psychological disorders). Throughout, risk reduction and health promotion are shown as a viable public health strategy A reference with considerable utility across the health, mental health, and related disciplines,Family and HIV/AIDS will be a go-to resource for practitioners working with families, researchers studying at-risk populations, administrators seeking to create new (or evaluate existing)prevention and care programs, and policymakers involved in funding such programs.

CarlC. Bell, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Public Health and Director of the Institute for Juvenile Research (IJR),University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). IJR is century old, multi-million dollar academic institute providing child and family research, training, and service, employing 257 academic faculty and support staff.  Dr. Bell is President and C.E.O. - Community Mental Health Council (CMHC) and Foundation, Inc. in Chicago. CMHC a large multi-million comprehensive community mental health center employing 390 social service geniuses. During 40 years, he has published more than 450 articles, chapters,and books on mental health and authored The Sanity of Survival.  He has been interviewed by Ebony; Jet; Essence; Emerge;New York Times; Chicago Tribune Magazine; People Magazine; Chicago Reporter; "Nightline";ABC News; NPR; "CBS Sunday Morning"; The News Hour with Jim Lehrer; the Tom Joyner Morning Show; Chicago Tonight; and the "Today" show. A1967 graduate of UIC, he earned his M.D. from Meharry College in Nashville,Tennessee in 1971. He completed his psychiatric residency in 1974 at the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute/Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago.

Willo Pequegnat, Ph.D., is Associate Director of the International AIDS Prevention Research in the NIMH Division of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Pequegnat has a range of experience with both national and international HIV/STD prevention research and has expertise in primary and secondary behavioral preventive interventions,stress and coping, psychological, neuropsychological, and physical functioning,and quality of life. Her research involves multilevel social organization and complex relationships: couples, families, communities, societal (media,policy), technological (internet, web, smart phones, etc.). She is working on the issue of social instability, such as consequences of war,terrorism,migration, female and drug trafficking on HIV/STD transmission. She took the initiative to develop a research program on the role of families in preventing and adapting to HIV/AIDS and chairs the only annual international research conference on families and HIV/AIDS. She co-edited the book on this program of research entitled, Working with Families in the Era of AIDS. Dr. Pequegnat initiated and is co-editor of How to Write a Successful Research Grant Application: A Guide for Social and Behavioral Scientists,2^ndedition, Community Interventions and AIDS, and From Child Sexual Abuse to Adult Sexual Risk: Trauma, Revictimization, and Intervention. She has developed three special issues of AIDS and one of JAIDS. She plans and implements national and international workshops, conferences, and symposia on HIV/STD, and represents NIMH on science policy-making committees and work groups in the Public Health System on a broad range of HIV/STD issues.