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Counselors say:The face of AIDS changes every dayBv CLIFF COADYThird in a series“You can kiss me, you can hug me, you can shake my hand, you can drink out of the same glass. I can sneeze on you, I can cough on you - you’re not going to get it from me.” - Arthur Ashe, former tennis star, on the stigma associated with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).The face of AIDS changes every day, and nowhere is that more evident than in the support groups offered in Norwalk for People With Aids (PWA) and familv and friends of PWAs.When the support group for the former (which also includes people who have tested HIV positive for the virus thatcauses AIDS) started four years ago, most of the participants were single, white, gay and middle class, Pat Mallon, case manager for the Mid-FairfieldAIDS Project Inc., said. With the disease spreading across every possible ethnic, economic and age line, the group dynamics are more complicated now.“I have a client who is in herearly 30s,” said Mallon. “She just had her third baby and it tested positive for the virus. So now she’s dealing with how to take care of herself and all the guilt. I know someone else who found out their parents haveAIDS.”The participants in the PWA support group have become more diverse over the years andmay, at some point, find themselves looking for a better-defined assemblage because the commonality of AIDS may no longer be enough to keep the group together, Mallon said.The support group was designed to provide a safe place for the exchanging of medical and insurance information and to find empathy and emotional intimacy in a world where those who have the disease are generally made to feel like they should conceal it. “People usually come in wanting knowledge, they’re angry, shocked, frustrated and maybe feeling a little guilty,” said Mallon.(Information about the location of such meetings is availContinued on page 13
Newspaper Details
Norwalk News
Norwalk, Connecticut, US
Thu, Apr 23, 1992
Page 1
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USA 29 Jun 2021
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