Older HIV patients struggle with loneliness and depression -- and lack of services

Older people with HIV are frequently lonely and depressed, many of them face serious housing and financial hardships, and they have high rates of physical ailments — such as chronic pain, heart disease, diabetes and fatigue — that can diminish their quality of life.

All of that’s been known for several years. But services to meet their needs still fall short, say people with HIV and the groups that support them, and simply quantifying their mental and physical health problems has been a challenge.

People age 50 and older make up nearly two-thirds of all those with HIV in San Francisco. Most of these older adults have been infected with the virus for 20 or more years. They are the long-term survivors: men and women who were infected before drugs to treat HIV were widely available, when the illness was considered a death sentence.

Though those drugs were life-saving, for many survivors, realizing they were going to live opened a new chapter of emotional and physical challenges.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/Older-HIV-patients-struggle-with-loneliness-and-13322006.php