title: Ideological schisms about HIV/AIDS helping systems in the African American community, with an emphasis on women.
abstract: This article is an initial exploration about the impact of ideological beliefs on helping services in the African American community. Newly infected HIV/AIDS cases place African Americans at 45% of such new cases, with African American women becoming infected at a rate 18 times that of Whites. Yet, helping services that are organic to African American women should be stronger through a discussion of cultural beliefs held in the community, where the genesis of helping services exists. Values and beliefs should be at the center of community partnerships, public media strategies, generalist-practice curricula in macro-level systems, and creating more space for relationship dialogue between African American men and women, which includes gender and racial distortions. Given the exponentially high numbers of HIV/AIDS cases in the African American community, a more earnest examination of values and beliefs is warranted.
authors.affiliation: The Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work, Norfolk State University,700 Park Avenue, Norfolk, VA 23504, USA. cnfairfax@nsu.edu
authors.forename: Colita Nichols
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Fairfax
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000208:ethnology; D001741:Black or African American; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000208:ethnology*; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D011057:Politics; D011287:Prejudice; D012067:Religion; D012737:Sex Factors; D012947:Social Work / Q000458:organization & administration*