Occupational Stress Among AIDS Social Services Providers

Abstract
This survey reveals high levels of job-related stress among social workers, counselors and health educators working with HIV/AIDS patients in five large, urban medical centers. Stress is associated not only with the severity of AIDS as a disease, but also with several organizational characteristics of respondents' job sites. The availability and usefulness of several on-site, stress-reduction strategies are explored. Overall, where services such as stress-reduction workshops, support groups, and rotations away from direct patient care are offered, workers participate in them and perceive them as useful in reducing job-related stress. Interest in these and other stress-reduction services is high among those who do not currently have them available.