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HBC programs for PLWHA by volunteer caregivers. These findings highlight the need to
educate community members on the impacts of stigma and discrimination towards PLWHA
and also the importance of supporting the work of the volunteer caregivers including the role
of HBCOs.
Micro level
Volunteer caregivers in this study felt they had insufficient knowledge on infection control
practices due to insufficient training. Because of this, most participants feared contagion and
felt demotivated to perform their work. Volunteer caregivers play an important role in home
based care for PLWHA and when they are demotivated due to insufficient training it can
cause them to quit their job as found by Ross, Greenfield & Bennett (1999) in their
longitudinal study on predictors of dropouts and burnout amongst AIDS volunteers. This also
implies that HBC program could lose manpower and infection control practiced could be
affected negatively in that most patients could not be attended to causing an increase in
morbidity and mortality rates. Therefore, these findings add more literature about the gaps
that exist when it comes to training on infection control practices.
Even though volunteer caregivers were encouraged to wear plastics on their hands in place
of the gloves, most of them resorted to use their bare hands because they could not perform
their duties properly like washing clothes or beddings with plastics. This implies that
volunteer caregivers are susceptible to cross infections. These finding are consistent with two
different studies in Botswana by Kang’ethe (2010) and Shaibu (2006) on challenges faced by
volunteers. Results showed that volunteer caregivers did not have materials to protect
themselves when doing their work hence they were forced to use their bare hands. This study
also reveals that when volunteer caregivers did not have materials, they resorted to teaching
the family members how to care for their patients. However, the downside of educating
family members is that family members could not handle the psychological, physical and
emotional stress that comes with care giving. This could also imply that some patients could
never be attended to especially those that live alone and those that are stigmatised by their
own family members. This also could cause volunteer caregivers to be less committed to their
work as a result there could be high mortality rates among PLWHA in HBC programs.
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