Empowerment, community mobilization and social change in the face of HIV/AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS 1996 Jul 7-12; 11:214 (abstract no. Tu.06) Parker RG; Institute of Social Medicine, State Univ. of Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Fax: 55-21-228-9526. E-mail: parker@vmesa.uerj.br.
Summary: Based on recent social and behavioral research, together with more than a decade of practical experience in countries around the world, an important shift has begun to take place in models or paradigms that have been developed to understand and respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. A growing awareness of the complex social, cultural, political and economic forces shaping the epidemic and, in particular, of the link between social injustice and increased vulnerability to HIV infection has led to the reformulation of both theory and practice aimed at responding to AIDS and at meeting the needs of those most affected by the epidemic. The focus of HIV/AIDS prevention efforts has increasingly shifted from models aimed at changes in individual risk behavior to models aimed at community mobilization. An earlier emphasis on information-based educational campaigns has given way to intervention programs aimed at enablement and empowerment in the face of the epidemic. These developments have been linked to a new awareness of the fundamental connection between public health and human rights and to a new understanding of the fight against AIDS as part of a much broader process of social change aimed at redressing structures of inequality, intolerance and injustice.
Keywords: AEGIS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV Infections, Social Change, Consumer Participation, Social Behavior, Risk-Taking, Human Rights, Socioeconomic Factors, Health Services Needs and Demand, Human, ICA11
