The Narratives of 12 Men with AIDS: Exploring Return to Work

Authors: Braveman B.¹; Helfrich C.²; Kielhofner G.²; Albrecht G.³

Source: Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, Volume 13, Number 3, September 2003 , pp. 143-157(15)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

Analyses of life stories has increasingly been used to understand how different individuals interpret and respond to an experience such as the onset of disability. This paper presents findings of a prospective qualitative study of 12 men living with AIDS who attempted to return to paid employment. Narrative analysis of four interviews over 12 months was used to explore the relationship between return-to-work efforts and whether participants' narratives progressed, remained stable, or regressed. Findings suggest that the men who demonstrated progressive narratives recreated an identity including a view of themselves as workers and recaptured a sense of competence. Men with regressive narratives demonstrated decreased identity and competence while men with stable narratives showed little change in either identity or competence. This paper contributes to our understanding of how the framing of an illness or disability by an individual may influence the progression of his life history narrative.

Keywords: narrative; AIDS; identity; competence; vocational rehabilitation

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; bbravema@uic.edu 2: Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 3: School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Publication date: 2003-09-01