Celinda Lake on the public opinion data:
Responsibility is a word that AIDS Action's focus group participants mentioned often and in several different contexts. Our central finding about "responsibility" is that the AIDS community need not fear it. Participants used "responsibility" to describe:
- society's role in helping sick people, including people with AIDS, regardless of their own personal biases against "lifestyle choices;"
- the role of individuals to help protect themselves and others;
- government's role in AIDS research, as well as treatment and care for people living with HIV and AIDS; and
- government's role in education and prevention.
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Talking Points
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The term "shared responsibility" resonated as a description of the compact that should exist between society and government and people affected by HIV and AIDS.
Prevention dominated the sense of shared responsibility, under the notion that everyone has a responsibility to educate children and young people about HIV.
"I don't think there is a primary role [for educating kids]. I think it is a shared role."
-- White college-educated woman, Atlanta
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- The success of a new era of prevention depends upon shared responsibility, not finger pointing or blame, but commitment from all sectors of society -- public and private, individuals and communities -- to fight the spread of HIV.
- Our nation's leaders have a responsibility to fund and support community-based and national prevention efforts so that those at risk have the tools they need to avoid HIV infection.
- Local communities have a responsibility to provide those at risk with the unvarnished truth about how HIV is spread.
- Individual responsibility means that those who are HIV-positive or at risk for HIV have a responsibility to protect their own health and the health of others.
- Personal responsibility doesn't occur in a vacuum. People need to know the facts and have tools to protect themselves and others.
- For four years, the federal government has made no new investments in HIV prevention. The first step toward more personal responsibility is a nation that encourages it.
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This article was provided by
AIDS Action Council.
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