Introducing life maps as technique in a social group work programme for young adults living with HIV/AIDS

Abstract

Although the life map technique has been used in general social work practice for the past fourteen years, it has never been described or researched. The motivation for this study is to describe this technique. Given the extent of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa and globally, the technique was build into a social group work programme for young adults living with HIV/AIDS which was implemented in the Free State Province of South Africa. Following an experimental design and utilising a standardised measuring instrument, the general contentment of both the experimental and control groups was measured to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme. The experimental group's general contentment increased by 10.7%, while the control group's general contentment decreased by 1.3%.