AIDS: Intervening with Hidden Grievers

AIDS and the deaths resulting from the disease impact increasingly large numbers of individuals and families. The survivors often mourn confused and alone. For the first time, this authoritative, sensitive work offers not only necessary recognition of the needs of the bereaved but also affords clinicians and counselors well founded recommendations for appropriate interventions. The stigma so often associated with AIDS and the obstacles and reactions it occasions for survivors is thoroughly examined and methods of responding are given.

Dane and Miller, in describing theories of grief and bereavement and in offering a remarkably clear treatment of the AIDS crisis and its import, establish a context for discussing the reactions and intervention needs of subsets of survivors - children, adolescents, women, families, lovers, and others. Short case studies vividly illustrate the grief, feelings of guilt, sense of loss, and other reactions requiring understanding and counsel. The examples allow the authors to explore the important distinctions and principles essential to caring, constructive support.