A therapeutic community for HIV-infected persons: an approach for prevention and control of AIDS.

ABSTRACT

The Therapeutic Community (TC) for HIV-infected persons is neither a hospital nor a confinement for people with HIV. Actually it is a family of friends who are in the same boat and a place of education to teach them about AIDS and relevant subjects necessary for their life in the future, and to help establish new values and life styles for them using TC tools which are adapted from the DAYTOP TC in U.S.A. The purpose was not only to build the residents, but also to encourage them to do their part in contributing to build up a better and safer society that will help to save the lives of others from AIDS. Correct knowledge in AIDS, together with the quality of honesty, responsibility and other basic attitudes that the residents acquire through the program will enable them to become a creative force in the prevention and control of AIDS. The author would say that words alone will not describe the whole TC. It requires self experience through the program in order to learn TC and understand it.