Role of Social Workers for HIV/AIDS Prevention at the Community Level

Health professional awareness about HIV/AIDS influences the nature of services delivered to people with HIV. Lack of knowledge contributes to stigmatisation, hostility and decreased care. Social workers have an important role in providing HIV/AIDS education, patient care, counselling and HIV/AIDS education at the community level. The purpose of this work is to study the impact of the orientation programme on the level of knowledge and attitude of students of Master of Social Work towards HIV/AIDS and to assess the pre- and post-level knowledge and attitude of HIV/AIDS.

A total of 110 students were selected. Both pre- and post-assessment was carried out using The HIV-Knowledge Questionnaire (HIV-K-Q) and the AIDS Attitude Scale (AAS) after the intervention.

Students showed a change in their knowledge/attitude after the intervention. It has implications in utilising the social worker's skill at the community level for HIV/AIDS prevention.