Nurse Researcher Establishes AIDS/HIV Care Model in India

Nurse researcher establishes AIDS /HIV care model in India Several years ago, Adey Nyamathi, Associate Dean, International Research and Scholarly Activities, UCLA School of Nursing, found a way to help rural women with AIDS in India adhere to complex treatments.

With the cooperation of the Indian prime minister and a grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md., Nyamathi developed a model of care that deployed Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs). Typically used to assist women with reproductive health in India, these community health workers helped with AIDS retroviral treatment, care and transportation to urban treatment facilities.

“ASHAs exist in India in the role of health counselors. They make sure women get to the hospitals to deliver their babies. And in India there are different kinds of midwives trained at different levels,” explains Nyamathi.

“Training lay-village women to become sensitive and expert in HIV was new. They help women get to the hospital to take their meds as well as with education,” she says.

The ASHA model can be modified for use in other countries, says Nyamathi who calls AIDS “a huge problem in many developing countries.” She attributes high rates among women in India to heterosexual transmission.

Nyamathi credits early work with homeless and drug-addicted patients with fostering an interest in community health on a global scale, saying “Since 1987, I’ve been working with people who were practically homeless. Coming from an Intensive Care Unit background, I knew this is what I wanted to do: make a difference at the community level,” she adds.