From: Michael Sugarman
Date: 10/17/00
Time: 12:27:48 AM
Remote Name: 205.188.198.27
Ellen-Marie,
I can understand your feelings. I've been a social worker for close to twenty years in the field of death and dying specifically with folks with hiv or aids. Over the last few year's clients, peer treatment advocates and self help literature moved away from person first language-pwa- to the use of living with....
At a HIV conference workshop in '98 I asked a panel of peer treatment advocates and folks living with hiv--about the shift from pwa(btw-which i liked very much, too)-to living with hiv. Most if not all responded with preference to living with...
We see about three hundred folks living with hiv or aids at the county clinic. I do one to one counseling and group work. Either in the second or third session I ask the client what preference does she or he has with being called pwa or plwa/plwhiv. It was a fantastic question that led to further disclosures and preferences. In more than 80% of my cases I use the term living with...
Look forward to meeting you. kindly, michael