Why was the e-guide developed?

To help HIV+ people understand what rehabilitation is.
The word rehabilitation can be confusing to some people.  They may have heard the term in relation to recovering from drug abuse, and not be aware of the separate field of rehabilitation to overcome health-related challenges.  Even those familiar with health rehabilitation may not know all about the services provided by rehabilitation professionals. This e-guide will give more information about this area of healthcare.

To help HIV+ people understand the role of rehabilitation in managing their health-related challenges.
There is often confusion about how rehabilitation can help people who are living with chronic or episodic conditions such as HIV.  This e-guide will help you get a better sense of what rehabilitation professionals can do to help you manage your health-related challenges.

To help HIV+ people get access to rehabilitation services. 
Not all family doctors or HIV specialists know how rehabilitation can help HIV+ people improve their health and their lives.  This e-guide will help you, as a person living with HIV, learn about what rehabilitation can do, so that you can help your doctor or other specialists understand what you need.

To help HIV+ people better manage their health and adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Research shows that self-management leads to better health and well-being1.  This e-guide will share some self-management techniques that will allow you to be pro-active with your own health, and keep doing the things you want to do.

How was this e-guide developed?

This e-guide was inspired by an e-module developed for rehabilitation professionals. That module focuses on teaching rehabilitation professionals about HIV, and how their services can be helpful to HIV+ people. You can find it here: http://hivandrehab.ca/EN/information/care_providers/documents/CWGHR_E-moduleEvidence-InformedHIVRehabilitationfinal.pdf

Feedback on this module was gathered during a research study. In this study, we asked a number of HIV+ people to review the information to see if they would find the information useful. HIV+ people said the information was useful, so we asked how we could make it easy for them and others living with HIV to find, understand, and use the information. We used the feedback to create this e-guide.

1Lorig, Kate R., et al. "Chronic disease self-management program: 2-year health status and health care utilization outcomes." Medical care 39.11 (2001): 1217-1223.