The overview of Malaysia hiv counselling structure

Abstract

HIV infection is a chronic disease as there is currently no effective treatment or vaccine which further intensify the psychosocial impacts on HIV patients, their spouse as well as their family. However, HIV transmission is preventable as it is associated with the patients’ behaviour and lifestyle. Therefore, HIV counselling plays a vital role in the prevention and management of HIV transmission. Although studies on the structure of HIV counselling sessions have been done by previous researchers, similar study on the structure of HIV counselling sessions should be done in Malaysia in order to see whether the structure comply with those found in the previous research. Due to the lack of literature on the structure of HIV counselling sessions in the Malaysian context, the need for such research is even more significant in order to contribute to the Malaysian research on HIV. A total of 24 HIV counselling sessions from three government hospitals in Malaysia were recorded, transcribed and analysed. After analysing the data obtained from the audio recorded of HIV counselling sessions, it became apparent that the HIV counselling structure found in this study consisted of different themes which could be distinguished from each other based on the interactional goal each was attempting to achieve in the session and it was evident that the different phases have distinctive interactional structures.