Adult day care for people with human immunodeficiency virus

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) adult day care ADC) center is an important component in the continuum of care for the HIV ill client, providing therapeutic advantages to the client and administrative advantages to the community as it copes with the growing HIV epidemic. The HIV ADC center was designed using several models of adult day programs for developmental, psychosocial, geriatric and neuropsychiatric treatment. The HIV ADC client is typically in a non-acute phase of a chronic disability resulting from some combination of primary HIV pathology and secondary illnesses associated with the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and is in need of some level of rehabilitation. The HIV ADC client is. typicall a gay or bisexual male, a man or woman who is or has been adbicted to intravenously injected drugs, or the sexual partner of someone in these groups. Programming addresses the psychosocial needs and daily reallties of these populations. This article describes occupational therapy intervention focused on maintaining, restoring, or adapting functional skills, with special attention to the daily activities most affected by cognitive/ perceptual dysfunction.