Emotional Rescue
So tomorrow I'm going to accompany a young man I work for to get a "Rapid" HIV test. This is a test that will tell you in 20 minutes if you have the antibodies that indicate if the virus is in your blood. So in 20 minutes your life as you know it can be changed forever.
This is a fairly new test and although I have been trained to give it, I have not as I don't have access to the proper storage for the controls. So it will be done at a clinic affiliated with the community center I work at. Now, I do testing the old fashioned way, lots of pre-test counseling, the test, a two week wait and then the results. This gives the person as well as myself a period of time to prepare for the result. Time to decide who to tell, how to tell, get supports in place, make referrals, if one is positive . It also affords time to think and plan risk reduction if one is negative. I've given many tests before. The outcomes? Some positive, most negative and I have felt fairly confident in how I handled them all. No judgment or bias just concerned caring, but this, this is an immediate in your face, think on your feet kinda deal and `I'm feeling a little shaky.
This is a young man I know well, someone I have counseled and tested several times before, formulated many "risk reduction" plans with and loaded with enough safer sex supplies to fill a CVS. Each time tested, each time negative and each time he resolves to follow the plan we create together. But somehow in the heat of the moment or when he's hungry, cold, tired or needs money that falls by the wayside and immediate survival takes the forefront. We have a good relationship, as good I guess as anyone he chooses to trust in his life and I'm glad he trusts me enough to want me there when he hears the results of this test. What I'm worried about is that I won't be all I can be for him if he doesn't hear the word negative again. I know my job is to gather information and to present choices, not make choices for them or tell them what I think they should do, but this is the part of my job when I want to and I can't.
So tomorrow, I will take this young man to the clinic and wait the longest 20 minutes of his life with him. Whatever the outcome I will be there for him,. I will be his emotional rescue if not his physical. At least I will try my very best. If positive, I will make sure all is in place for him to get into treatment. If negative, I will again create with him a "risk reduction" plan that he can follow and know I have given the choices but it is his decision to make them. I just hope he does....
Addendum: NEGATIVE
This is a fairly new test and although I have been trained to give it, I have not as I don't have access to the proper storage for the controls. So it will be done at a clinic affiliated with the community center I work at. Now, I do testing the old fashioned way, lots of pre-test counseling, the test, a two week wait and then the results. This gives the person as well as myself a period of time to prepare for the result. Time to decide who to tell, how to tell, get supports in place, make referrals, if one is positive . It also affords time to think and plan risk reduction if one is negative. I've given many tests before. The outcomes? Some positive, most negative and I have felt fairly confident in how I handled them all. No judgment or bias just concerned caring, but this, this is an immediate in your face, think on your feet kinda deal and `I'm feeling a little shaky.
This is a young man I know well, someone I have counseled and tested several times before, formulated many "risk reduction" plans with and loaded with enough safer sex supplies to fill a CVS. Each time tested, each time negative and each time he resolves to follow the plan we create together. But somehow in the heat of the moment or when he's hungry, cold, tired or needs money that falls by the wayside and immediate survival takes the forefront. We have a good relationship, as good I guess as anyone he chooses to trust in his life and I'm glad he trusts me enough to want me there when he hears the results of this test. What I'm worried about is that I won't be all I can be for him if he doesn't hear the word negative again. I know my job is to gather information and to present choices, not make choices for them or tell them what I think they should do, but this is the part of my job when I want to and I can't.
So tomorrow, I will take this young man to the clinic and wait the longest 20 minutes of his life with him. Whatever the outcome I will be there for him,. I will be his emotional rescue if not his physical. At least I will try my very best. If positive, I will make sure all is in place for him to get into treatment. If negative, I will again create with him a "risk reduction" plan that he can follow and know I have given the choices but it is his decision to make them. I just hope he does....
Addendum: NEGATIVE
posted by RacialRobinson at 1:18 PM
0 comments
