A growing body of scientific literature suggests that HIV seroprevalence among people with serious mental illness has increased substantially in recent years. In the Italian context, specialized services (mental health or infectious disease) more and more are requested for combined management of dual diagnosis. Consequently health care workers (HCW) have to face difficulties due to new situations of care. To fill these gaps, the core purpose of this study is to analyze HCW experiences from their own perspectives in order to understand their difficulties and create good practices in health care.

A qualitative study was conducted in public services Mental Health and HIV/AIDS workers, in Lazio region, Italy.

HCW were asked in anonymous way about their experiences. The interviews, consisting of one open_question, were audio taped and integrally transcribed and the texts were analysed through software T-Lab (cluster and correspondence analysis).

91 HCW were interviewed. We identified, trough cluster analysis, six cultural models about dual diagnosis: Disease as personal experience, Fear of contagion, Training as support to work, Service as integration function, Families as object of the intervention, Disease as scientific knowledge

In conclusion, this study examines for the first time the constructions of dual diagnosis in the Italian context through text and language of HCW. It reveal that we need further elaboration because of sociocultural meanings of dual diagnosis are not fixed but are ongoingly co-constructed by the various participants of health context.

A growing body of scientific literature emphasizes a strong linkage between HIV/Aids and serious mental illness. In the Italian context, specialized services for combined management of dual diagnosis are increasingly requested, and healthcare professionals (HPWs) have to face up the difficulty emerging by this new situation. To bridge these gaps, the present study aimed at studying the representations of dual diagnosis, analyzing HPWs’ experiences from their own perspectives, in order to understand their difficulty and create future good practices in healthcare services.

A quali-quantitative study was conducted with a multidisciplinary sample of professionals (N=91), drawn by HIV/Aids and Mental Health sites. Due to the exploratory nature of the research, data were collected from semi-structured interviews: HPWs were asked about their work experiences with HIV/Aids and Mental Illness. The interviews were fully audio-taped and verbatim transcribed. A computer-aided lexical correspondence analysis was conducted by a dedicated text-analysis software.

Data analysis showed out two main factorial dimensions: the first regarding the representation of the “Management of dual diagnosis within Health Services”, and the second one referring to the “categorization of HIV/Aids-Mental Illness co-morbidity”. Furthermore, four different Representational Conceptions were highlighted, corresponding to as many different ways HPWs use to represent/depict the aims of Health Service in relation to HIV/Aids-Mental Illness co-morbidity.

This study reveals that socio-cultural meanings of dual diagnosis are not fixed; rather, they are ongoing co-constructed within the activities carried out by the HPWs involved in their specific health contexts in the exercise of their profession.

Aim of this article is to explore the ways in which, over the last 25 years, knowledge about HIV/Aids and Mental Health co-morbidity has been represented within medical and social sciences literature.

The study has been conducted on the texts of 1101 published manuscripts abstracts within from 1984 to 2008, referring to 379 different journals and retrieved on PUBMED database. It was used the following database search string: ("mental health"[Title/Abstract]) or ("mental illness"[Title/Abstract]) AND (("aids"[Title/Abstract]) or ("hiv"[Title/Abstract]))). A Computer Aided Text Analysis was conducted with dedicated software: T-Lab (Lancia) using Cluster Analysis.

Cluster Analysis allowed to identify five different main dimensions: 1:(27,68%) Health-care Service organizational development; 2: (22,10%) Mental health as empowering precursor of infection risks. 3: (8,58%) Quality of life; 4: (19,17%). Therapies and treatments’ research; 5: (22,46%) Psychological issues, emotions and distress correlated to seropositive patients and their caregivers. Figure 1 it is a way to outline the five clusters literature trends over the time of 25 years.

Our review could help to identify particular areas in need of change, to provide a baseline against which to assess future changes and to provide data for use in research health planning and policy analysis.