Impact of HIV infection/AIDS on social service agencies serving children and youth in Toronto.

There are few data on how HIV infection/AIDS affects social service agencies serving children and youth. We conducted a survey of 24 provincially funded agencies in the Metro Toronto area and discovered that 36 clients and 9 staff members were HIV-infected. Our data strongly suggest that these agencies were ill equipped to cope with issues surrounding HIV infection/AIDS. Inadequacy or absence of policy and procedures resulted in confusion regarding issues such as HIV testing, need to know, confidentiality, duty to warn, staff and client education, and universal precautions for infection control. In order to effectively deal with the psychosocial, legal, ethical and education needs of clients and staff, agencies must be pro-active in developing policy and procedure.