Abstract:
This descriptive survey study investigated psychosocial Needs of People Living With HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) in Northern Senatorial District of Cross River State, Nigeria. The study population comprised all the PLWHA and the Health Counsellors in comprehensive Antiretroviral Therapy Centres in Northern Senatorial District of Cross River State. The sample comprised 300 patients and 26 Health Counsellors randomly selected from a total population of 3,301 patients and 26 Health Counsellors. The instruments used for data collection were two researcher’s designed questionnaires titled “Needs of HIV & AIDS Patients Questionnaire (NHAPQ) and “Counselling Strategies for HIV & AIDS Patients Questionnaire” (CSHAPNQ). These instruments were face validated by three experts in the Faculty of Education of University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha statistics which analysis gave an overall Alpha Co-efficient Value of 0.82 for NHAPQ and 0.63 for CSHAPNQ instruments respectively. Data collected were analyzed using percentage, mean and standard deviation statistical tools in answering the six research questions while z-test and ANOVA statistical tools were used to analyze the null hypotheses tested at 0.05 probability level. The findings show that the prevalence of HIV & AIDS was highest among age range of 26-35 years. HIV and AIDS patients have psychological and sociological needs that need to be met by their health care givers and this will be achieved using some counselling strategies. The study also showed that the psychosocial needs of PLWHA were reduced to a great extent. However, the null hypotheses testing showed that there is no significant difference among psychosocial needs of PLWHA based on age range. Also, that there is no significant difference between male and female psychosocial needs of PLWHA. Based on these findings some counseling implications were highlighted and recommendations made. Among which are that government and health professional should be more committed in attending to psychosocial needs of PLWHA and organise workshops and seminars for health counsellors on effective counseling strategies for caring of PLWHA.
