A place “I feel is home”: the meaning of home and implications for health among people living with HIV/AIDS in Greater Vancouver
Date
2018-05-30
Authors
Deyman, Megan
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Abstract
Background: Housing continues to be one of the most significant unmet needs for many people living with HIV/AIDS in British Columbia. While there has been a focus on documenting the material aspects of housing and housing extremes (i.e., homelessness), there are important gaps in our understanding of the complex relationship between housing and health for people living with HIV/AIDS. The aim of this research was to identify what “home” meant for people living with HIV/AIDS across a continuum of housing/living situations, the ways in which people living with HIV/AIDS construct meanings of home, and how these factors interact with their (physical, mental, and emotional) health and wellbeing.
Methods: This thesis reports on a secondary analysis of individual interviews from the Positive Living, Positive Homes (PLPH) community-based research study. For the PLPH study, community-based research approaches were used to explore a variety of lived experiences across a continuum of housing situations, while promoting collaborative inquiry among community and academic research team members. For this analysis, a purposively selected sample of 10 transcripts was drawn from 53 semi-structured qualitative interviews with people living with HIV/AIDS in Greater Vancouver (GV). Transcripts were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach, adopting constant comparative and other coding techniques from a grounded theory approach to explore how people constructed the meaning of home, and how people living with HIV/AIDS perceived the various elements of their home environment to interact with their health and wellbeing. Descriptive thematic coding was augmented with higher-level conceptual coding to further develop over-arching conceptual themes. Some participatory analysis elements, including involvement of a community advisory committee (CAC), were included in the analysis process to allow for collaborative inquiry, and to augment and confirm results.
Results: The participants (5 Caucasians, 3 Indigenous persons, 1 Chinese-Canadian and 1 African refugee; 5 females, 1 trans-female, and 4 males) lived in a range of housing situations (market rental, subsidized, supportive, and precarious housing). Results from a thematic analysis showed that even when people had access to four-walled housing structures, they didn’t necessarily feel that their living environment was safe, secure, or conducive to having their health and social needs met. Emerging themes highlighted how people define home and their conditions for this designation revealed the ways in which people manage their living spaces to foster feelings of autonomy, security, constancy, and opportunities to strengthen their identity.
Discussion: Understanding the distinction between housing and home, and the meaningful dimensions of peoples’ living environments, can help improve options for appropriate housing by moving away from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Furthermore, collaborative inquiry may help address the action-oriented needs of the research findings through community-academic partnerships, knowledge sharing, and knowledge translation activities.
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Keywords
HIV, AIDS, Meaningful dimensions, Meaning of home, Home, Housing, Ontological security, Community-based research