Revealing the impact of loss: Exploring mental health through the use of drawing/writing with HIV positive adolescents in Johannesburg

- Loss and bereavement are pervasive in the lives of perinatally infected HIV positive adolescents.
- Drawings and writing highlight contextual deprivation, including high exposure to multiple losses of significant attachment figures.
- They also underscore emotional impoverishment, including unresolved complicated grieving impacting on mental health functioning.
- Innovative methods are required to address unmet mental health needs of this patient population.
- Using non-verbal methods by healthcare professionals could be valuable to both patient and provider, particularly when managing bereavement.