Point out guidance and counselling skills to the infected and

affected people

At the end of the study, student should be able to;

a) Define the meaning of the following terms

i. Guidance
ii. Counselling
iii. Counselling skills
iv. Guidance skills
b) List down the guidance and counselling skills for HIV victims.
c) Explain guidance and counselling skills for HIV victims
d) Assess the benefit of guidance and counselling skills for HIV victim

INTRODUCTION
Guidance and counselling is an activity of directing, advising and peruse an individual affected with
certain circumstance or catastrophe to accept the situation and care about, so as to reduce stress,
shock, hopeless, believe as well as discouragement from such condition.
It provides psychological influence to affected and infected person to cope with adverse effect of certain
event such as diseases, family conflict, criminal offense and judicial resolution. Therefore HIV/ AIDS as
one of catastrophe is the event that enforce health institutions to provide professional advice to HIV/
AIDS infected and affected people to accept the situation and to change the living environment.
It also gives knowledge and skills to non-infected peoples to practice social activities related to HIV
infection in safety ways and avoid HIV transmission.
Guidance
Is the process of helping an individual to gain self-understanding and self-direction in order to adjust
maximally to his environment.
Counselling
Is a process of helping a person to accept and use information and advice to solve present problem or
cope with it successfully. Sometimes this process helps an individual to accept an unchangeable
situation. E.g. The situation of having HIV/ AIDS.
Counselling skills

The acquired verbal and nonverbal skills that enhance communication by helping a medical
professional to establish a good rapport with a patient or client. To counsel means „to advise, to
recommend and to advocate adverse effects or any disaster and encourage client to recover into
normal situation.
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Counselling aims at helping people resolve issues, but it is a more professional and structured way of
assisting people than guidance and advice. Counselling may help a person to explore his/her life,
feelings, strengths and weaknesses and to find new perspectives that can lead to real changes in
sexual behaviour and ways of relating to other people.

Guidance skills.

Is knowledge that helps a counsellor to direct a client on what to do through out certain
circumstance.Guidence aimed at provision of guidelines or directive about certain matters.

Guidance and counselling skills for HIV victim

If an individual is affected with HIV, an easiest way to recognize the problem is to carry out medical
investigation through blood testing. This is not a simple work because human being always fears about
death and most of people refuse to do so. Therefore even if a client decides to test HIV virus, medical
officers are supposed to provide guidance and counselling to prepare client for positive and negative
outcome.

Emotions of the HIV-Positive Client

These feelings about HIV and AIDS can be:

i. Shock
No matter how much you prepare, it is a shock to hear that you are HIV positive which will
eventually turn into AIDS.
ii. Denial
At first, some individuals will be unable to believe that they are HIV positive. They may
rationalize like this, “The test must be wrong,” “It can‟t be true,” “How can I be positive when I
feel so good?”
iii. Anger
Some people get very angry when they find out that they have HIV. They blame themselves,
blame the person who infected them, or blame God. Some individuals are so angry at the one
who infected them, they want to go out and infect other people out of vengeance.

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iv. Bargaining
Some try to make deals. They think, “God will cure me if I stop having sex,” or “The ancestors
will make me better if I slaughter a goat,” or “If I go and see a special doctor, he will give me a
magic cure.”
v. Loneliness
Persons with HIV and AIDS often feel very lonely. Their sense of loss is magnified particularly
in relationships with others. They need to be given the assurance that they are not
alone, that especially God has never left or forsaken them…ever!
vi. Fear
People living with HIV and AIDS often fear many things:
 Pain
 Shame
 Other people knowing they are infected
 Of not being able to be intimate
 Of not having sex
 Of leaving their spouse, children, and friends
vii. Self-consciousness
Some HIV-infected persons feel everyone is looking at hem or talking negatively about them.
This makes them want to hide. They sometimes feel rejected by others…that they are ugly.
That they want to reject themselves…do away with themselves (maybe suicide).
viii. Depression
Some people with HIV and AIDS feel there is no good reason for living. They feel useless.
Sometimes they will stay at home, not eat, talk to anyone, or punish themselves, etc.
Depression can make this person weak in mind and body.
ix. Hope
People with HIV and AIDS can have hope about many things:
 Hope that they will live a long time
 Hope that scientists will find a cure
 Hope that the doctor will be able to treat each sickness as it comes

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To make a client aware of the result, counsellor is supposed to provide counselling into three
stages of testing; these are;

a) Pre HIV-test counselling.

This is the counselling that is given to the client before the blood is taken for testing to ascertain
HIV/AIDS infection. The counsellor‟s first task is to explore the client‟s problem and the kind of
expectations. During the pre-test counselling, the counsellor addresses the client‟s health
education on HIV/ AIDS and corrects the client‟s misconception about the virus and the AIDS.
b) Post HIV-test counselling.
This is the counselling given to a client after taking HIV test regardless whether the result was
positive or negative. When a client comes back to receive the result of his/her test, he/she has
to be counselled before the results are conveyed to him or her. The counsellor should work
hard to prepare the client for bad news as to avert such catastrophes such as breakdowns,
suicides or any other violent acts.
c) Follow up/ supportive/Infection guidance and counselling.
This counselling is given to a victim after confirming him to have positive result of HIV on how
to live with other people.

Categories of counselling

1. Individual Counselling

This is one-to-one dialogue between the client and the counsellor.

2. Couple Counselling

This is a dialogue between a counsellor and two individuals who are in a sexual relationship. The
counsellor must ensure that each partner has given informed consent to VCT before conducting couple
counselling.

3. Group Counselling

This is a dialogue that involves a counselor and more than two individuals who share a common
problem. It can be a powerful experience because people see that they share similar concerns, which
can give strength and new hope.

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GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING SKILLS FOR HIV VICTIMS

i. Communication skills
ii. Capping
Capping involves changing a conversation‟s direction from emotional to cognitive if the
counsellor feels their client‟s emotions need to be calmed or regulated.
iii. Paraphrasing
This technique will show clients that the counsellor is listening to their information and
processing what they have been telling them. Paraphrasing is also good to clarify any
misinformation that might have occurred.
iv. Listening Skills
With any relationship, listening skills are needed to show that the counsellor understands and
interprets the information that their client gives them correctly. The counsellor should do this by
showing attentiveness in non-verbal ways, such as: summarizing, capping, or matching the
body language of their clients.
v. Clarification:
A counsellor should often ask their client to clarify what they are telling them to make sure they
understand the situation correctly. This will help the counselor avoid any misconceptions or
avoid them having to make any assumptions that could hinder their feedback.
vi. Empathy
The ability to perceive another's experience and then to communicate that perception back to
the individual to clarify and amplify their own experiencing and meaning. It is not identifying with
the patient or sharing similar experiences, not "I know how you feel"!
vii. Confidence
The ability to believe on what you deliver to the client and what a cancellor receive from the
client under careful evidence and clear solution.

viii. Infrequent questions.

Frequent questions enable a client to gain more information and deliver additional information
to the councellor.
ix. Open-ended questions

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Open-ended questions encourage people in a counselling session to give more details on their
discussion. Therefore, these types of questions are used as a technique by counsellors to help
their clients answer how, why, and what.
x. Responding skills.
The ability of cancellor to accept any changes from client and influence patient to copy with
changes.

BENEFIT OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING SKILLS FOR HIV VICTIM

i. It offers an opportunity to clarify aspects of HIV and AIDS.

ii. It helps the client to make an informed choice whether to test or not.
iii. It allows the client to express concerns and he/she can get psychological support.
iv. The client is helped to make risk assessment and plans to reduce the risk.
v. The client is helped to prepare for the test results and issues that might arise.
vi. Establishing a relationship and understanding of the client‟s problem in a manner that
puts the client at ease.
vii. Exploring the problems and issues of the client, such as listening and questioning
skills.
viii. Skills ensure that a counsellor has really understood the client.
ix. Help to increase relationship.ie. counsellor & client, client vs. relative
x. Skills help HIV victim to plan for action.
xi. Enables HIV victim to avoid risk behaviour.
xii. Helps to reduce spread of HIV.