Stigma and isolation
Lorna was a Clinical Nurse Specialist for HIV in Edinburgh, here she talks about the impact of stigma on people living with HIV.
“I just would ask them, about who they were, their family, who knew about their condition, who they felt that they could share things with. Some no one. Some were very lucky and had a few members of family. Some were in close relationships.
Isolation
But I think I was really, really saddened, in fact heartbroken, when I realised how different it was from other diseases, that, how bad the stigma isolated people.
Broke my heart
Isolated them to the point that, you think, oh my goodness, I am the only person they have talked about their deep personal feelings to, because they’ve no one else to share that with. And that really broke my heart.
Massive role ahead
I just thought, oh my goodness, this is a massive, massive job here. We have a massive role ahead of us here. And so, very, it had to be very supporting. You know, we had, we had a lot of deaths. We went to a lot of funerals.”
