Support policies for people living with HIV/AIDS in Greece: National interventions and non-governmental initiatives

Aristides Galanakis
Description

HIV/AIDS is a pathological entity that, since its inception in the 1980s, has significantly affected the quality of life of carriers and patients. Due to the high morbidity and mortality rates, but also under the state of a host of psychosocial issues related to seropositivity, HIV/AIDS sufferers are treated, both socially and legally, as a vulnerable group, and are included in the category of people with disabilities. In this context, the state instituted a series of social policy measures for the socio-economic support of the HIV-positive population, while parallel programs of actions and initiatives were developed by non-governmental non-profit organizations (NGOs, institutions) with the aim of informing, empowering and multilevel assistance of sufferers and their relatives, the community and ultimately society as a whole.

National policies to support people living with HIV/AIDS specialize in, inter alia, health care, access to antiretroviral treatment, and income support to address the effects of infection. The work of the state is assisted by non-governmental organizations, whose action focuses, among other things, on mitigating the impact of HIV on society, on the psychological, social and legal support of those concerned, on empowering particularly vulnerable HIV-positive populations, such as women, prostitutes and drug users.

This paper will attempt a systematic study of HIV/AIDS policies in Greece, as it will describe, analyze and evaluate all relevant actions, on the one hand through the state via institutional tools and operational action plans, on the other hand through non-state initiative via programs, awareness campaigns and other interventions. In particular, through qualitative research processes (interviews), we will attempt to evaluate these policies, as perceived by key public and non-governmental sector actors who have been involved in their inspiration, design, implementation and enforcement, in order to assess whether these policies succeed in achieving the goal of ensuring a quality standard of living for HIV-positive people.

Supervisor
Academic Year
2019 - 2020