Collaborative Approaches to Increasing Family Support for HIV Positive Youth

Family therapists working in medical contexts often struggle to find a common language for communication with medical staff about the importance of family support. HIV positive youth are a group who have particular need for family support to help improve medication adherence, promote more open and positive communication, and decrease substance use and risk behaviors. In this paper, the authors retrospectively examined the levels of family support in a sample of 50 North American urban minority youth coping with HIV in an HIV/AIDs pediatric clinic from 2003 to 2007 at 2 time points (pre- and postdiagnosis) and began developing a clinician-rated family support tool. The authors highlight the use of a common clinician-rated family support tool for medical and mental health staff to discuss patients and their families. Results suggest that the family support youth were receiving fell between mixed and unsupportive levels both at pre- and postdiagnosis. Through the use of a case example the authors elaborate on how this family support tool aided in building a collaborative relationship with a focus on garnering family support for youth coping with the diagnosis of HIV.