Children With Hiv/aids

[Peppers82]

Hello everyone,

I'm a little frustrated trying to find research on an assignment due Oct 4th. It is a 15 minute presentation on "A 2 year old toddler with AIDS dealing with placement issues"

I figure I will begin with statistics on how many children are infected and how. I also want to stress the whole prevention thing. All the testing available and the reasons why some women are not treating themselves during the pregnancy.

I just cant seem to get anything on adoption/foster care for these children and their special needs. I'm guessing I need to find some kind of protocol followed. I'm tired and stressed and running out of brain power.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you much!

Esperanza-Nursing Student(if that wasnt obvious)

[rn/writer, RN]

Maybe you could contact children's services in your area and ask for information and references. They are often the ones involved in placing these kiddos. Many larger communities have treatment foster homes that take HIV/AIDs children either long-term or short-term until adoptive homes can be found.

I figure I will begin with statistics on how many children are infected and how. I also want to stress the whole prevention thing. All the testing available and the reasons why some women are not treating themselves during the pregnancy

Although these factors might merit mention at the beginning of your presentation, I would encourage you to stick to the assigned topic of placement.

Another suggestion--focus on specific children (they can be hypothetical) rather than the generalized population of HIV/AIDs kids. A good model for this is those late-night ads for groups that want you to sponsor a child in a third world country. They don't ask you to care about 12,000 kids in Brazil. They ask you to reach out to Emilia who has never owned a pair of shoes. In that same vein, you can speak of little Benjamin, the boy who hears his bedtime stories from nurses because the hospital where he went for his last medical crisis has no place else to send him.

We tend to tune out the big picture unless it comes to us in small enough pieces to take in and digest. Present the specific and let your audience ramp the information upwards. Start small and let the ideas grow.

I wish you well.

[GingerSue]

in my pediatric textbook this is what they have to say about adoption, in general:

they talk about open adoptions , informal agreements, shared responsibility

Laws

Protection for the birth mother and child to ensure that the birth mother is not coerced

Birth fathers, their rights, and the birth father relinquishing his legal rights to the child

Adoptive parents taking a risk

[Peppers82]

Thank you Miranda and Ginger. Miranda you will be happy to know that I called my current clinical site hospital, which has a great Pediatric dept and was referred to Social Services. I've left a message and should hopefully get a response on Monday so I can tie everything together. Focusing on placement :)

I can move on to my other pending assignments. Our work is never done!

Thank you again.