AIDS counselling: the interactional organisation of talk about ‘delicate’ issues

TLDR

The AIDS pandemic has prompted extensive social science research, yet most studies concentrate on epidemiology and survey-based health knowledge and behaviour. This paper presents an early report on practical HIV and AIDS counselling in several English clinics. By analysing transcripts of real counselling encounters, the study examines how professionals and clients organise talk about delicate issues, focusing on delays in mentioning such items and the social structuring of their description. The analysis demonstrates that detailed conversation analysis of naturally occurring counselling can yield insights that inform professional practice.

Abstract

Abstract Although the AIDS pandemic has generated considerable social science research, the focus has almost entirely been on epidemiology and on survey research studies of health knowledge and behaviour. In contrast, this paper offers an early report on ongoing work into HIV and AIDS counselling as it occurs in practice in a number of English clinics. An analysis of transcripts of such naturally occurring encounters reveals how professionals and clients organise their talk in relation to the ‘delicate’ issues to be discussed. Particular attention is paid to the phenomenon of delay in the production of ‘delicate’ items and to the social organisation of the description of such items. Drawing, in part, on methods from conversation analysis, it is shown how a detailed analysis of how talk is produced in naturally occurring settings can generate findings relevant to professional practice.