Thursday, March 7, 2013

National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is a day to "Share Knowledge. Take Action."


COMPTON, CA; MARCH 10, 2013 National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD) held each March 10th sheds light on the disease's often overlooked impact on women and girls and empowers people to make a  difference. In 2010, women and girls made up two-thirds of people who acquired HIV by having heterosexual sex. For more information on activities and how you can get involved, visit NWGHADD website at http://www.womenshealth.gov/NWGHAAD/.

In recognition of NWGHAAD, Women Alive Coalition would like to take this opportunity to highlight an important issue that disproportionately affects women living with and affected by HIV/AIDS: DEPRESSION.
  • 70% of women are more likely to experience depression in their lifetime than men. One in four women will experience severe depression at some point in life.
  • Depression is the number one cause of disability in women.
  • Victims of sexual and physical abuse are at a much greater risk of depression.
  • Only about one-fifth of all women who suffer from depression seek treatment. 

Major depression is defined as a mood disorder characterized by one or more of the following (partial list):
  • Feeling sad, anxious, hopeless, or "empty".
  • Loss of interest in hobbies and activities that you once enjoyed, including sex.
  • Difficulty staying focused, remembering, or making decisions.
  • Thoughts of hurting yourself, death or suicide
Sources: American Psychological Association and National Institutes of Mental Health

Women Alive Coalition contend that stressors (e.g., lack of support, women serving as primary care givers, low self-esteem, intimate partner violence, and gender inequality, etc.) often cause women to experience depression.  Women coping with stressor(s) who receive an HIV-diagnosis are more vulnerable to blaming themselves, feel a sense of worthlessness, isolate themselves from family and friends, and fear of stigma.

"Share Knowledge. Take Action." Recognizes that for women to get back in alignment with their authentic self, we must strive to create more programs and services that address a woman’s self-efficacy and self-worth.  Achieving this re-alignment includes reciprocity (information exchange), intensity (increased self-efficacy through relationship building) and complexity (addressing barriers to prevention and care).  Women can re-establish themselves as “power brokers” in their lives their family, community and society by engaging in advocacy for their own increased quality of life. Their efforts have the capacity to include and concentrate on a complexity of key stressors that may be primary causes of poor health outcomes (both physical and mental).

Women Alive Coalition, Inc. started out in a living room in 1990 by a group of women living with HIV/AIDS who wanted to bring other women living with the virus out of fear and isolation through information, encouragement, emotional and social support. Our mission is to advocate collaborate, and educate to improve the physical, mental and emotional health of women, heterosexual men and their families living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS.

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