Rehabilitation Professionals and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Care: Results of a National Canadian Survey

Worthington C, Myers T, O’Brien K, Nixon S, Cockerill R, Bereket T. Rehabilitation professionals and human immunodeficiency virus care: results of a national Canadian survey.ObjectiveTo describe rehabilitation professionals’ practices, knowledge and training, professional views, and service delivery issues for people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (PHAs) in Canada.DesignNationwide cross-sectional postal survey.SettingCanada.ParticipantsRandom sample (N=2105) of occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, and physiatrists who had practiced in the past year.InterventionsNot applicable.Main Outcome MeasuresSurvey items on current practices, HIV knowledge and training, professional views on rehabilitation and HIV, and HIV rehabilitation service delivery issues.ResultsSeventy-four percent (1492/2006) of the traceable sample responded, 53% (n=1058) of whom yielded completed surveys. Sixty-one percent of survey respondents never knowingly had served an HIV-positive patient. Of this group, 27% indicated these were patients they would like to work with, 27% indicated they were unwilling, and 46% were unsure. The 39% who knowingly had served PHAs had served an average of 4 PHAs in the last year, and less than 25% of their HIV patients’ rehabilitation issues were HIV-related.ConclusionsDespite the role rehabilitation professionals have to play in the care of PHAs, only a minority serves PHAs. Results of this survey show a potential gap between the documented rehabilitative needs of PHAs and services provided by the rehabilitation professional community.