Although AIDS was originally viewed as a disease afflicting only homosexual men and intravenous drug users, HIV infection is now rising most rapidly among heterosexual women. Present estimates show that pediatric AIDS cases have also increased: there are approximately 20,000 children with AIDS in the United States alone. As the disease continues to spread, most rapidly among women and racial minorities, social workers and other service providers are forced to confront a wide range of new public policy problems.
The Social Welfare of Women and Children with HIV and AIDS examines the issues surrounding this growing epidemic, including discrimination in employment, housing, health care, and education, and explores such important topics as medical testing, confidentiality, reproductive freedom, income assistance, child welfare, and child custody. The text provides a comprehensive overview of public policy and legislation regarding these issues, focusing on the federal and state statutes that protect women and children with HIV and AIDS from discrimination. These statutes govern the operation of the public systems to which significant numbers of women with HIV and AIDS turn to for social services and financial, medical, and housing needs. The text also examines programs that affect the lives of women with children, such as child protective programs and foster care programs, and looks at specific issues of discrimination, including exclusion of children from regular classrooms; exclusion of women from experimental drug testing and research trials; and the denial of financial assistance to women because eligibility is based on signs and symptoms of HIV in men.
The Social Welfare of Women and Children with HIV and AIDS provides detailed information on court decisions which have set the precedents for the way the system deals with the problems facing today's growing HIV and AIDS infected population. It also considers the impact of the increasing number of women turning to the public sector for assistance with financial and medical problems in an era of government retrenchment. Written in clear and accessible language, The Social Welfare of Women and Children with HIV and AIDS is vital reading for students and practitioners in social work, public health, and law and a valuable aid for students of women's studies.

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