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Mental health promotion for the widows of injecting drug users in north-east India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Helen Herrman
Affiliation:
Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Locked Bag 10, Parkville 3052, Victoria, Australia, email h.herrman@unimelb.edu.au
Michelle Kermode
Affiliation:
Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia
Alex Devine
Affiliation:
Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia
Prabha Chandra
Affiliation:
National Institute of Mental Health, Bangalore, India
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The prevalence of HIV is high in the north-east Indian states of Manipur and Nagaland. The major route of HIV transmission is injecting drug use. Most injecting drug users (IDUs) are male and about 40% are married. The widows of IDUs are among the most disadvantaged people. Many are HIV-infected and experiencing poverty, poor health, social isolation and discrimination, all factors likely to compromise their mental health. Some widows are engaging in HIV risk behaviours, including alcohol and drug misuse, sex work and unprotected sex. There is increasing recognition of the links between poverty and mental health status and risk of HIV infection. People with poor mental health are more likely to engage in HIV risk behaviours.

Type
Special Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2009

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