Return to work for individuals with Human Immunodeficiency Virus
(HIV) disease: Dichotomous outcome variable or personally-constructed narrative
challenge?
Issue title: HIV/AIDS and Employment: The Continuing
Challenge
Affiliations: Senior Clinician, Caulfield Pain Management &
Research Centre, 260 Kooyong Road, Caulfield 3162, Australia. Lecturer, School
of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, La Trobe University,
Melbourne 3086, Australia
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Scott Presnell, School of
Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, La Trobe University, Victoria
3086, Australia. Tel.: +61 3 9479 5733; Fax: +61 3 9479 5737; E-mail:
s.presnell@latrobe.edu.au
Abstract: Advances in the management of HIV disease have increasingly focused
attention on the possibilities of return to employment for individuals with HIV
disease. However whilst mortality has decreased and life expectancies have
lengthened, life for the individual with HIV remains both complex and
unpredictable. This article explores the notion of return to work as narrative
theme. A case study highlighting the narrative nature of how return to work
might be conceptualised by the HIV positive individual is presented; ahead of a
brief discussion as to how the lived reality of combination therapy may impact
upon the individual's conceptualisation of employment in the broader context of
their life story.
