Utilising Abandoned Leprosarium for HIV & AIDS Hospice Centre

Abstract

The purpose of writing this paper is to understand the issues related to People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA). The issues are often related to health, social and economical. Health issues gave a certain limitations towards the HIV patient which leads to social issues such as stigma, discrimination and marginalisation. Consequently, these social issues give an impact towards the economy of an individual and the country whereby PLWHA loses their job and becoming a burden towards the family and government. Despite that, there are still some non-government bodies such as Malaysian AIDS Council who concerns with this group of community and the future of the country. They have provided shelters and organising a lot of HIV/AIDS related campaigns. However, the issues arised is that the number of shelters is too minimum compared to the number of PLWHAs in the country. Moreover, shelters provided are mostly bungalows or terrace houses which has a small compound to have any form of activities. Since there is available land of abandoned leprosarium in Johor, it could be utilised and turn it into a HIV/AIDS Hospice Centre. Characteristics of the site and designed environments for PLWHA are discussed in order to understand the desired and suitable environment to assist people living with HIV/AIDS in reducing depression, negative emotional, stigmatisation and other miserable symptoms.

Keywords: Hospice, HIV, AIDS, Stigma, Leprosarium