Revealing the impact of loss: Exploring mental health through the use of drawing/writing with HIV positive adolescents in Johannesburg

Revealing the impact of loss: Exploring mental health through the use of drawing/writing with HIV positive adolescents in Johannesburg

Woollett N; Brahmbhatt H; Dodd K; Booth M; Berman H; Cluver L

Children And Youth Services Review

2017

Foster Care; Health Care Services; Health & Mental Health Services (3370); Mental Health

The article presents a study with aim, Revealing the Impact of Loss: Exploring Mental Health Through the Use of Drawing/Writing With HIV Positive Adolescents in Johannesburg. This study examined the use of drawings completed by perinatally infected adolescents accessing public health care in Johannesburg. These drawings were facilitated by counsellors, known to the adolescents in the clinic, as a means of engaging in the experience of loss. This qualitative study used data from a larger quantitative study assessing mental health (depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicidality) using standardised scales (n= 343; 96% response rate). Adolescents between 13 and 19 years volunteered to participate in a 90 minute questionnaire administered on tablet computers, known to improve reporting of stigmatised behaviors and interspersed with drawing tasks. The ‘research counsellors’ routinely provided direct services to the adolescents as counsellors, were trained in paediatric HIV and advanced counselling, and participated in the research, engaging in principles of ethical research with minors. The objective of this study was to use a drawing task with perinatally infected HIV positive adolescents who were bereaved to identify the impact of loss on their current mental health. Bereavement is pervasive in this population, often unidentified or unresolved, and there are scant ways identified to manage loss in the public health system. This study reveals that loss can be engaged with through drawing and written accounts facilitated by lay counsellors to uncover areas of emotional difficulty in patients that require attention. In addition, drawings and written accounts may provide vital and obvious clues in identifying those at risk for mental health problems in adolescent patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

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