No abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the knowledge level of undergraduate students of a Nigerian university about HIV/AIDS, their perception of risk of contracting HIV/AIDS based on their sexual behaviour, and to assess how students acquire information about HIV/AIDS. The sample consisted of 380 students from five faculties of the university who volunteered to participate in the study. Participants completed a survey asking about their knowledge about transmission, symptomatology and prevention of HIV/AIDS. The survey included questions about their sexual orientation, past and present sexual practices as well as sources of information about HIV/AIDS. The results indicated that the students were knowledgeable about transmission and symptomatology but there were some misconceptions about the mode of transmission of HIV. Few students identified themselves to be at high risk even though majority of them (92%) were sexually experienced. The study also showed that even though these students are knowledgeable and concerned about contracting HIV/AIDS from their partners, this did not prevent them from engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse. It appears, however, that students are exercising caution when negotiating new sexual relationships, as they are likely to discuss (and insist on) using condoms and ask to have a monogamous relationship. Students obtained information about HIV/AIDS primarily from the media rather than from school classrooms and homes, which suggests a need to increase educational efforts at the university. Many students of this university may be at risk of becoming HIV-infected due to their age bracket, level of sexual activity and past/present sexual behaviors. University faculty can be actively involved in developing and implementing HIV/AIDS education and prevention strategies on their campuses. Health educators must go beyond providing accurate and gender-specific information about HIV/AIDS; they must also help students realistically assess their own risk of infection, and develop communication processes which enable them to negotiate safer sexual practices.

Limits of confidentiality have not been defined for the life‐threatening dilemma of a client who has the AIDS virus and who continues to be sexually active without informing her or his partners. The authors review the medical background of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, legal limits, and ethical tenets of confidentiality. A position supporting breach of confidentiality is taken, and specific suggestions for counseling the client are offered.

The publication of the first counseling articles addressing confidentiality limits of clients who have HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and continue to be sexually active with an uninformed partner occurred 4 years ago. Since that time, dialogue about whether a helping professional may ethically and legally breach confidentiality has not resolved the dilemma but instead has created more questions and controversy for counselors. In this article the authors highlight the barrage of ethical issues regarding HIV and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AlDS), review ethical and legal guidelines pertaining to HIV and AIDS and confidentiality, summarize HIV and AIDS confidentiality policies of the major helping professional organizations, articulate questions that contribute to the confidentiality dilemmas, and challenge the American Counseling Association (ACA), formerly the American Association for Counseling and Development (AACD), to develop specific guidelines for counselors.

This article describes how the faculty of a counselor education program developed and implemented a social advocacy model of counselor preparation.'The College of Education will be eliminated." Those words, delivered by the university president and provost to a crowded classroom filled with anxious faculty members, had the shock value one would expect from such a dire pronouncement. As a group of counselor education faculty sitting in the room, we heard the news of our imminent closure with the rest of the college of education faculty. Following a brief period of personal struggle and introspection, we developed a coordinated, assertive, and constructive response to the announcement that the counselor education program was to come to an end.This article presents an abbreviated case study of how one counselor education program developed responses to the situation and emerged with a new social advocacy program model. The process of developing these responses and the new counselor education model of social advocacy that emerged are the focus of this arJudith L.