HIV/AIDS Knowledge Among Professional Counselors and Counseling Students in Ohio

Development and validation of the mental health professionals’ attitude towards people living with HIV/AIDS scale (MHP-PLHIV-AS)

“…MHP educators and supervisors can use this instrument to identify gaps in students' and supervisees' training. Rose et al (2015) found that few professional counselors receive HIV/AIDS education in their university training, and even less engage continuing education opportunities once they are credentialed and work in the field. This leaves MHPs lacking in discussions relating to HIV/AIDS.…”

“…This leaves MHPs lacking in discussions relating to HIV/AIDS. When attitude is influenced by knowledge (Carney et al, 1994;Rose et al, 2015), education is key to improving attitudes towards HIV/AIDS.…”

“…They found that, on average, professional counselors' and counseling students' knowledge about HIV/AIDS was more accurate than that of the general public. However, Rose et al's (2015) study did not address MHPs' attitudes towards PLHIV.…”

“…Such a measure is needed to evaluate competency in working with PLHV. Rose et al (2015) created an instrument to measure counselors' level of HIV/AIDS knowledge through the creation of the Professional Counselor HIV/AIDS Knowledge Questionnaire (PC-HA-KQ). They found that, on average, professional counselors' and counseling students' knowledge about HIV/AIDS was more accurate than that of the general public.…”

“…It would stand to reason that attitudes within the therapeutic relationship are of utmost importance to understanding the competence level of a MHP working with a client infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. What is more, attitudes are intertwined with knowledge and experience (Carney et al, 1994;Gawronski, 2007;Rose et al, 2015). As Petty et al (2007) contended, attitudes operate on a higher-order cognitive level and can change over time based on new information taken in through learning or experiences.…”