"Empowerment" and self-help in the care experiences of people with HIV

Empowerment is an ill-defined concept within the ideology of health promotion but is central to the field. The utility of the concept of empowerment whilst much debated has only attracted few empirical studies which detail the effects of empowering interventions. Whilst empowered self-care behaviours and empowering interventions by carers and professionals may be described, they defy measurement and quantification. Hence interventions, strategies and policy making remain rhetorical. The present day association of empowerment appears to be with the conscious surveying and construction of needs to conform to market models of health and social care. Such operational definitions of empowerment remain at variance with the origins of the concept which lie within the relationship of individuals with authority and to a wider tradition of community participation aiming to redress social inequalities. The United Kingdom policy response to the current HIV and AIDS "epidemic" in Health of the Nation stresses the need for community empowerment without either definition of the concept or through addressing the epidemic from within the perspective of those infected and affected. This proposed study will define empowerment in people affected by HIV and AIDS from the current discourses of those infected and their carers. Through analysis of individuals lived experiences it aims to characterise empowerment in people affected by HIV and AIDS and strategies which people affected and their carers identify as contributing to their struggle.