Sexuality, vulnerability to HIV, and mental health: an ethnographic study of psychiatric institutions.
This paper presents data from the ethnographic based formative phase of the Interdisciplinary Project on Sexuality, Mental Health, and AIDS (PRISSMA), sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and carried out in two psychiatric institutions in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Results from ethnographic observations, focus groups, and key informant interviews with different groups of mental health care providers and day hospital and outpatient mental health clients regarding conceptions of sexuality and HIV vulnerability are described. The results suggest a diversity of notions about sexuality by both groups and point out the high HIV sexual risk in this psychiatric population. This formative phase has served as the basis for the cultural adaptation and creation of a Brazilian intervention for HIV prevention in the severely mentally ill, the feasibility of which has been successfully evaluated in the pilot phase.
Pinto
Diana de Souza
Dde S
Departamento de Processos Técnico-Documentais, Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. dianap@globo.com
Mann
Claudio Gruber
CG
Wainberg
Milton
M
Mattos
Paulo
P
Oliveira
Suely Broxado de
SB
D000328:Adult; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D001938:Brazil; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012737:Sex Factors; D019529:Sexuality; D035862:Vulnerable Populations / Q000208:ethnology*