An important part of the care your child receives at their clinic visits involves keeping an eye on how your child is emotionally and psychologically, and how you are managing as a family. Staff will talk to your child and you about how HIV is affecting you all, or about anything else that might be affecting your child’s happiness or welfare. This could include changes in your family’s circumstances or how your child is doing at school.

These discussions can be an important part of preparing to tell your child about their HIV status if they don’t already know. See Talking to your child about HIV for more information on this.

If your child needs some additional support, clinic staff can refer him or her – and other family members if that would be useful – to other services that can help. HIV can present challenges for families, so make sure you get the support you need as a parent and for yourself as well.