Nutrition and HIV/AIDS: A Training Manual - Linkages Project

Involving people living with HIV/AIDS, caregivers, and household members (slide34)People living with HIV/AIDS and to some extent caregivers and other householdmembers have the best knowledge of existing options and relevant constraints.These people ultimately will choose whether to implement and continue dietaryrecommendations and therefore must believe the nutritional recommendations arecredible and feasible. Therefore, it is critical to involve these stakeholders at allstages of the processes described above. For example, to assess the food securitysituation and identify opportunities to strengthen it, counselors should discuss thequestions and issues mentioned above (under “Understanding the sources of foodinsecurity”) with clients, caregivers, and household members. Successful counselingmust fully involve these people at all stages-assessing needs, identifying constraintsand underlying factors, identifying capacities and options, selecting approaches, andplanning implementation of these approaches.Follow up (slide 35)Follow up to nutritional counseling focuses on examining how many of therecommended practices are followed, what changes in health and nutritional statusare evident, and what further support is needed. Follow-up sessions should alsoassess whether food security constraints have been addressed, what remaining ornew food security issues impede nutritional care and support, and what furthermeasures may be needed to address these issues and strengthen the capacity fornutritional care and support.Follow up may indicate that new approaches are required. For example, if a clientshows strong knowledge of nutritional needs but is unable to follow them because ofthe household’s declining earnings, further nutrition education may be less usefulthan other approaches focused on food access, such as household budgetingexercises, prioritizing food needs to facilitate optimal food expenditure and dietwithin the household’s budget, or referrals to safety net resources or services tostrengthen livelihoods.88