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Strategies for improving mental health and wellbeing used by older people living with HIV: A qualitative investigation

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Abstract

Recent research into “successful ageing” and “resilience” in the context of ageing with HIV highlights older people living with HIV’s (OPLWH) adaptations and coping strategies hitherto neglected by early research’s emphasis on difficulties and challenges. Yet “resilience” and “successful ageing” are limited by their inconsistent definition, conflation of personal traits and coping strategies, normative dimension, and inattention to cultural variation and the distinctive nature of older age. This article thus adopts an interpretivist approach to how OPLWH manage the challenges to their mental health and wellbeing of ageing with HIV. Drawing on interviews with 76 OPLWH (aged 50+) living in the United Kingdom, we document both the strategies these participants use (for example, “accentuating the positive” and accessing external support) and the challenges to these strategies’ success posed by the need to manage their HIV’s social and clinical dimensions and prevent their HIV from dominating their lives. This points to (a) the complex overlaps between challenges to and strategies for improving or maintaining mental health and wellbeing in the context of ageing with HIV, and (b) the limitations of the “resilience” and “successful ageing” approaches to ageing with HIV.

Acceptance Date Apr 19, 2018
Publication Date Jun 1, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal AIDS Care
Print ISSN 0954-0121
Publisher Routledge
Pages 102-107
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/09540121.2018.1468016
Keywords ageing, HIV, resilience, successful ageing, mental health strategies, wellbeing, interpretivist approach
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1080/09540121.2018.1468016

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