I want to be like the others - Waverley Care

2727I want to be like the othersethnicity, it must be acknowledged that issues such as poverty, immigration anddiscrimination based on ‘race’ and ethnicity have a major impact on psycho-socialfactors and other health-related quality of life issues and, to that extent, are vital inunderstanding needs and planning services. This will also be explored further in theinterviews with practitioners, parents and children.3.3 Affected Children and Young PeopleRepeating Inglis and Morton’s (1996) methodology, the needs assessment set out tocount, as accurately as possible, the number of children and young people currentlyliving in Scotland who are affected by parental HIV. It was known from the outset thatit would only ever be possible to come up with a rough approximation of total figures,because there has never been any official record kept of children affected by HIV,and because HIV has always been such a secret illness, as the scoping study hasdemonstrated. It made sense, however, to re-use the approach adopted by Inglis andMorton, firstly, so that a figure could be reached by similar means, and secondly, sothat comparisons could then be made over time.3.3.1 MethodQuestionnaires were sent to all HIV service providers in Lothian, Greater Glasgow &Clyde and Tayside Health Board areas, asking for details of the children with whomthey had contact (see Appendices 7.1). Additionally, given the known increase in thenumber of reports of HIV infections from areas such as Fife, Lanarkshire, Grampianand Highland during 2007 (Scottish Government, 2009), the study was broadened toinclude these areas. Steering Group members provided the information and contactsto agencies and practitioners working with children and young people affected by HIVin each area.The questionnaire was designed to be as simple as possible. Practitioners wereasked to identify each child/young person that they knew to be affected by HIV orAIDS, by their two initials, age and sex as well as details of whom they lived with.This ensured confidentiality and allowed key characteristics to be established,through which duplicate cases could be deleted. The questionnaire also providedinformation on the HIV status of their parent, sibling and any other family memberliving with HIV and the death of a parent, sibling or other family member.A total of 13 agencies participated in the number-counting exercise: