Family Life Cycle and HIV

Human immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV) has been affecting individuals for many years. When a person is newly diagnosed with HIV, they should focus on educating themselves on the disease. Self-education not only enables people to go on with their lives’ but allows them to make informed decisions regarding their own HIV care and empowers them, making the critical members of the healthcare team (Cichocki, 2017, p.1). HIV is a virus that has many individuals reframe from mentioning the first time you meet them. This specific virus has been negatively judged by people in the community for more than two decades. Publicly, the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in 1981 (Cichocki, 2017, p.3). Individuals who are living with HIV/AIDS are endangered to denial, societal ostracism, discrimination and hostility (Kasapoglu, Saillard, Kaya & Tura, 2011). Scholars mentioned the impression of HIV/AIDS discrimination on the mental and physical health of African American women variances in surviving mechanisms between rural African Americans and Whites (Baumgartner, 2012)

In most cases, HIV can be expanded in the course of unprotected sex, contributing drug-injecting equipment and to a child when a mother is pregnant. Peer schooling is widely advocated as an alternative to involvements presented by adults to prevent HIV/AIDS awareness in the evolving world (Boucouvalas & Oummarbiaa, 2011). HIV can present challenges throughout the joining of families through partnership. Family Life and HIV/AIDS schooling will teach fact of character and family existing respect for self and society as well as the right kind of behavior in children, beginning adults and adults (Adeniyi , Fakolade, & Oyewumi, 2011). 

Family life cycle

An individual will navigate in the course of emotional and intellectual stages. These stages are developed since a family life cycle. The family life cycle can be expressed as a developmental tradition within a family. Each step in the family life cycle involves specific adjustments, tasks, and changes that must be accomplished if individual and family as a whole, but not all families experience each stage. In social work, a family life cycle is termed as steps of family life, from separation from parents to forming a couple, having children, growing older , retirement, and so on; each stage typically requires some tractional modifications in the family (Nicholas & Davis, 2017). The idea of a family life cycle adds two things to the societies understanding of individual development: First, families essential regroup to accommodate to the evolution of their members; second, developments in any of the family’s group can partake an impact on one or all of the family’s afflicts (Nicholas and Davis, 2017). Family relationships are significant contributions of assessment and intervention when working with a family unit, an individual, and the individuals in the family as subsets of the family life cycle. 

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Just as people can be labeled in the phrases of his or her steps in the human life cycle, it is possible to define steps that transpire throughout the life of a family unit (Nicholas and Davis, 2017) . An individual will navigate in the course of emotional and intellectual stages during their life cycle. The family life cycle comprises six steps, beginning with independence, and ending with accepting the shifting of generational roles as an individual. In each stage a person will face significant challenges. These stages include a variety of challenges a person will face within their family, causing an individual to develop or gain new skills. Developing or gaining new positive skills can help a person and family during the steps in the family life cycle. The stages of the family life cycle involve six specific stages. The six stages are obtained from the emotional processes of transition and changes in the family status required to proceed developmentally. The six stages of the family life cycle are: departure from home, single young adults, the connecting of families through marriage, the new couple families with adolescents, launching children and moving, and families in later life (Nicholas & Davis, 2017). Understanding the family life cycle is significantly important for a family to survive and function clearly.

Stage One of Family Life Cycle

As a single young adult leaving home for the first time may be a very exciting chapter of  a person’s life, but this stage of the family life cycle can also present challenges. First, the step of the family life cycle takes account of a family’s emotion and financial responsibilities for themselves (Nicholas & Davis, 2017). After a young adult leaves home for the first-time new mechanisms of life will help display, causing the individual to learn who they really are outside of their family origin. This stage will also bring out developments of intimate peer relationships. The family will face life situations dealing with their overwhelmed emotions and their ability to establish financial stability on their own.

Stage Two of Family Life Cycle

Falling in love can make life feel relaxed and laid-back for many people.  Generally new love is referred  by the public as the “honey moon” stage of a relationship, which correlates with the second stage of the family life cycle. When this stage begins, the life cycle involves the expansion of family through marriage. Various amounts of people in society today are familiar with traditional families and the methods taken when adapting to the second step in the family life cycle. At this stage, a family will process changes amongst their normal family union, by forming a partnership through marriage and commitment. When relating traditional families to untraditional families, people may think about families dealing with divorce, drug addiction, or incarceration but what about HIV. HIV has been around for many years, but it is still a sensitive topic to discuss during normal conversations. In a traditional religious family life cycle, young women must maintain their virginity until marriage. When a person discloses to family and friends about  their spouse being HIV positive can possibly preset specific challenge’s. These challenges will consist of judgmental behaviors from a person’s family and friends. Although HIV has been a virus since 1981, people in the society still negatively judge HIV positive individuals. The society  focuses on negative thoughts of HIV positive people in their communities, mainly because of their lack of knowledge. Race and gender affect the experience of stigmatization in people living with HIV/AIDS (Baumgartner, 2012)  When a man marries a woman, who is HIV positive he should take out time to learn things to help their wife emotionally and mentally. The women have emotional and personal lives of , that have been severely impacted through the internalization of the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS (Edwards, Irving, & Hawkins, 2011). African-American women are more likely to become infected with HIV or to die of AIDS than women of other races/ethnicities (Amutah, 2012).

The spouse of a HIV positive person should focus on educating themselves as a family on HIV. When a spouse who is not HIV positive educates themselves because on their partner will make their spouse feel loved and supported. The HIV-positive people must have the proper support from society to cope more positively with this infection (Adeniyi , Fakolade, & Oyewumi, 2011).  The main approach of Family Life and HIV/AIDS Education (FLHE) is to encounter preventive education by providing learners with opportunities to develop a positive and factual view of self, obtain certain the information and skills in order to take care of their health  (Adeniyi , Fakolade, & Oyewumi, 2011).

Stage Three & Four of Family Life Cycle

 When accepting the third stage of the family life cycle, one will accept new members into the system (Nicholas & Davis, 2017). This stage will focus on marriages and partnerships, making accommodations to have space for their children or future children. Families deciding to have children must focus on their financial and household task, as well as their relationships amongst their extended family and friends. Usually at some point after a couple has children, they will need time for themselves to relax, therefore making adjustments of family and friends’ relations can help process parenting and grandparenting roles.

Young children of the parents with HIV/AIDS are emotionally affected by their parents’ condition and manifest a range of emotional disturbances (Crane, 2010). Stage four of the family life cycle involves adolescents, as well as flexibility of family boundaries to include children’s and independence grandparents’ frailties (Nicholas & Davis, 2017). The fourth stage of the cycle consist the martial system shifting, refocusing, and  beginning a new chapter of their life. Families will learn how to let their children freely find themselves and move in and out of the system.  Parents will start by regaining focus on midlife career crisis and begin shifting toward joint caring for the older generation (Nicholas & Davis, 2017).  Although adolescents are beginning to move in and out of the family cycle, parent should still pay attention to their children behaviors and needs. During e fourth stage of the family cycle adolescents tend to keep personal information to themselves.

Treatment Plans & Goals

 Adolescents of parents who are positively diagnosed of  HIV/AIDS struggle mentally, physically, and socially. A parent could help their child during this stage by proving therapy for the entire family. Social worker’s providing therapy to adolescents affected by a parent of HIV/AIDS could use When treating an adolescent, a social worker will work with the individual As a social worker, the objective and techniques would focus of the effectiveness of CBT and MCBT therapy when working with adolescents and families who are emotionally affected by HIV/AIDS. The treatments provided by the social worker will help the family understand the importance of communicating with their children and being aware of behavioral changes. During therapy sessions treatments involving mindfulness practice will be used as positive treatments. The first session of treatment will include assessing the entire family as a whole. When assessing a family during therapy, a social worker will access the challenges and behavioral issues of the family. The first therapy session will help social worker to build rapport with the members of the family, by  actively listening and giving positive feedback. Positive feedback is given successfully when any sign that amplifies deviation of the family system is recognized by social worker (Nicholas & Davis, 2017). 

 The social worker working with adolescents of parents affected by HIV will focus on mindfulness treatments, as well as providing activities related to the cognitive behavior therapy with adolescents.  A mindfulness video, accessing the member to think positively at all times will be help presents ways to reduces the members negative thoughts. Another mindfulness activity would involve writing. The social worker will have the member write five things they are grateful for every day, for five days, this activity will help member reduce their depression. The CBT activities during therapy will focus on explaining to member the coping methods and strategies to farther reduce negative though and anxiety. The social worker will use a self-correct worksheet, helping the adolescent discover how to replace negative words with positive words when interacting with other induvial. Another CBT activity used during treatment  will include drawing. The activity will help the adolescent think about what makes them sad, happy, angry, and loved. This activity is used to treat adolescent’s depression, social skills, and self-love. The illustration activity will help the social work to understand the  client more personally. The goals for this treatment plan will be guided to reduce the adolescent’s anxiety, social skills, communication, and depression. Therapy sessions will also help the parents realized challenges their children have been facing, which will help the family as a whole to focus on positively communicating as a family.

Stage Five/Six of Family Life Cycle

 The last two stages of the family life cycle relate to families deploying to another side life. Stage five is expressed as the period of launching children and moving on, by accepting a multitude of exodus and entries into the family system (Nicholas & Davis, 2017). This stage will also include forming adult relationships amongst entire family, because the children are now grown. This stage consists of readjustments in relationships and dealing with new disabilities & death. The sixth stage is not accomplished by every human being of a family life cycle. The last stage of the family life cycle contains accepting the shifting of generational roles, by maintaining couple functioning and interest in face of physiological decline (Nicholas & Davis, 2017). In a healthy, positive, caring family this stage will include grandchildren providing their grandparents with help relating to their needs of support. The last stage includes the dealing of loss of spouse, sibling, and other peers in the family, as well as preparing for one’s own death  (Nicholas & Davis, 2017). 

References

• Amutah, N. N. (2012). African American women: The face of HIV/AIDS in Washington, DC. The Qualitative Report, 17(Art. 92), 1-15. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?q=African+American+Women%3a+The+Face+of+HIV%2fAIDS+in+Washington%2c+DC&pr=on&ft=on&id=EJ990023
• Adeniyi, S.O. , Fakolade, O.A, & Oyewumi, A.M. (2011) An Assessment of the Level of Influence of Family Life and HIV/AIDS Education on Knowledge, Attitude and Decision Making among Adolescents with Hearing Impairment in Some States in Nigeria. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ958992.pdf
• Baumgartner, L. M. (2012). The perceived effect of the sociocultural context on HIV/AIDS identity incorporation. The Qualitative Report, 17(Art. 45), 1-21. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR17/baumgartner45.pdf
• Crane, R. S. (2010). Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. Cognitive Behaviour Therapies,49-69. doi:10.4135/9781446288368.n3
• Edwards, L. V., Irving, S. M., & Hawkins, A. S. (2011). Till death do us part: Live experiences of HIV-positive married African American women. The Qualitative Report, 16(5), 1361-1379. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR165/edwards.pdf
• Kasapoglu, A., Saillard, E. K., Kaya, N., & Turan, F. (2011). AIDS related stigma in social relations: A qualitative study in Turkey. The Qualitative Report, 16(6), 1496-1516. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR16-6/kasapoglu.pdf
• Nicholas, M. P., & Davis, S. (2017). Family Therapy Concepts and Methods(11th ed.). PEARSON.