Anxiety in community-based AIDS caregivers before and after personal construct counseling

Personal construct counseling was provided for voluntary AIDS caregivers based in the community, with the goal of reducing their anxiety levels. Seventy-five caregivers participated in the project, 33 of whom received counseling. They were interviewed on three occasions--before, immediately after, and 3 months after counseling. Their responses to an open-ended question were subjected to six subscales of a content analysis scale in order to measure levels of anxiety from six different sources. At time 2, the anxiety of the counseled caregivers was significantly less than that of those not counseled, specifically their anxiety about bodily mutilation and guilt. These differences were not sustained at time 3 because the anxiety of those not counseled dropped. Some criticisms of the project are examined before the meaning of these findings for meeting the mental health needs of AIDS caregivers is discussed.