WELLNESS 7

Module2-2.docx

2-2 Final Project Milestone One

2-2 Final Project Milestone One: Critical Analysis Portfolio and Presentation Proposal

Wellness is an active process through which one becomes aware of choices towards having a healthy and fulfilled life and is able to make the decisions. According to the World Health Organization, wellness is "...a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." There are eight dimensions of wellness; financial wellness, environmental wellness, emotional wellness, intellectual wellness, spiritual wellness, occupational wellness, social wellness, and physical wellness. If one of the eight dimensions is not functioning optimally, then a person is not termed to be well. Wellness is an essential aspect of life; it is like a cycle; if one is not functioning well, the cycle becomes incomplete. Wellness is affected by various issues; one of the issues is HIV/AIDS. This essay will look at HIV/AIDS as a wellness issue in the four general education lenses; social sciences, humanities, history, and natural and applied sciences.

HIV/AIDS is an acronym for human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The disease is a virus that damages the immune system of an individual. Currently, there is no known cure for the virus, making it a lifelong condition; however, there are drugs that can help control the effects of the virus on an individual. There are many speculations on the origin of the virus. HIV/AIDS as a disease affects an individual's health and affects other aspects of an individual, such as finances and social life. Furthermore, the infected person is not the only one affected by the disease; the family members and relatives are also affected, especially if they were a breadwinner. HIV/AIDS affects the social well-being of an individual the financial stability, among other things.

The history of HIV/AIDS gives a connection to how the disease affects other institutions. Scientists believe that West Africa is the origin of HIV/AIDS. According to scientists, the virus might have originated from chimpanzees and then transferred to humans through hunting. Then the humans in West Africa slowly spread the disease to other parts of the world. However, the disease was discovered in America in the 1980s when rare types of illnesses such as pneumonia were being discovered. Before conducting extensive research on the disease, the virus was called Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (GRID) because it was noticed to affect the gay. However, with time, the disease was noticed to affect other people, even those who were not gay, therefore requiring more research. It was then named HIV/AIDS after expansive studies that showed the virus affected individuals' immune system. The disease affected the well-being of individuals by affecting their immune systems, which consequently jeopardized their health well-being. The stigma associated with the disease because it was believed to only affect the gay affected the social well-being of individuals. Some companies refused to employ people suffering from HIV/AIDS, therefore affecting the financial well-being of the individuals.

From the social science perspective, HIV/AIDS affects the social well-being, emotional wellness, and environmental wellness of an individual. HIV/AIDS is a stigmatized disease, especially in developing countries. Most people look at the virus as a death sentence, and some are afraid of being associated with people that suffer from the disease. People with the disease are aware of the social stigma and sometimes family stigma, which in turn affects their emotional wellness. Also, the stigma affects the emotional wellness of close family members of the affected person, such as the children and sisters and brothers. Sometimes, the family members and the individual become depressed. Depression affects not only emotional well-being but also financial well-being and all the institutions.

Looking at HIV/AIDS through the humanities lens, the virus brought about controversies. In the religious context, for instance, when a person was known to have HIV/AIDS during the early stages of discovery of AIDS, the person was considered to be adulterous and thus condemned by the church. This affected the well-being of the person because the person's spiritual wellness was not in optimal function. With time, however, the church stopped stigmatizing members with the virus. In some countries, however, the disease is still considered to be brought about by committing adultery and being promiscuous. Sometimes it is used as a threat to make people stay faithful to their spouses and for youth to abstain from sex.

In the lens of the natural sciences, the disease is seen as subject to hypothesis and research. HIV/AIDS is being researched as solutions towards these issues are being sought. Currently, preventive medicine for people at risk of being infected by HIV/AIDS has been developed. This serves as a positive milestone in removing the disease from being a wellness issue. Perhaps natural sciences will offer the solution to HIV/AIDS and make it a normal disease that people no longer have to worry about.

HIV/AIDS is a wellness issue, especially in the LGBT community. The disease was first associated with the gay until women began suffering from it. LGBT people have been discriminated against by the public, even in the healthcare sector. Some are denied access to healthcare services because of being part of LGBT. HIV/AIDS proves to be a wellness issue to LGBT families because apart from the stigma and discrimination they receive for not conforming to the social norms, they have to struggle to look for healthcare assistance in containing the disease.

References

Charles, C., Haaland, M., Kulkarni, A., & Webber, J. (2015). Improving healthcare for LGBTQ populations.

Kontomanolis, E. N., Michalopoulos, S., Gkasdaris, G., & Fasoulakis, Z. (2017). The social stigma of HIV–AIDS: society's role. Hiv/aids (Auckland, NZ), 9, 111.

Melhuish, A., & Lewthwaite, P. (2018). Natural history of HIV and AIDS. Medicine, 46(6), 356- 361.

Mulé, N. J., & Smith, M. (2014). Invisible populations: LGBTQ people and federal health policy in Canada. Canadian Public Administration, 57(2), 234-255.

Rueda, S., Mitra, S., Chen, S., Gogolishvili, D., Globerman, J., Chambers, L., ... & Rourke, S. B. (2016). Examining the associations between HIV-related stigma and health outcomes in people living with HIV/AIDS: a series of meta-analyses. BMJ open, 6(7), e011453.