Guidelines for Community-Based HIV/AIDS Stigma Reduction Intervention in a Rural Community

Abstract

Research encourages evidence-based guidelines for practice. This paper describes the guidelines for HIV/AIDS stigma reduction in the community. These guidelines were developed by the authors based on findings of the study which was conducted to develop and evaluate HIV/AIDS stigma reduction intervention in a rural Namibian community. The developed intervention consisted of three strategies which are recommended as baseline for these guidelines. The three strategies were: education, community involvement and contacts with infected and affected groups that were implemented in this study. These strategies were implemented among the people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), their families and community members from the intervention group. The post-intervention results showed significant differences on stigma reduction between the intervention and control groups, therefore these strategies were recommended for future use. Furthermore, the study found that a combination of strategies was more effective than using a single approach. Another strategy that was absent in this study but was recommended in these guidelines for future stigma reduction was: counselling approach, which could be used to address internal stigma. This paper therefore recommends that these combined strategies: education, community involvement, contacts with affected and infected groups and continuous counselling, which will be named ECCC approach might be useful to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma in the community.