Patricia Bartlett
Patricia Bartlett attended Duke University for her Bachelor's degree before moving to Boston and receiving a Master’s in social work from Boston University. She took care of a close friend who had AIDS throughout 1981-82, and promised that she “would always take care of people with AIDS until there was a cure.” With modern techniques of biomedical research, she thought it would be quick, but this promise still motivates her life’s work today. She was invited to work with Dr. John Bartlett’s clinic in 1988 on the Reynolds grant which aimed to produce research comparing healthcare costs between home care and hospital care for dying AIDS patients. In the time in between, she had worked at the Durham County Regional Hospital (now Duke Regional Hospital) as a social worker, and her fearlessness and general familiarity with governmental bureaucracy would become a vital skill for the AIDS patients at Duke. As successful management of HIV/AIDS became widespread in the United States, Bartlett began visiting Tanzania with her husband regularly in 2004, where the support infrastructure for patients was nearly nonexistent. As a clinical social worker, Bartlett was closely familiar with the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. “The stories were true about one of our patients dying, and the parents arriving and changing locks on the door so that the partner couldn't get in,” she said. Even with very effective modern treatments which can reduce a patient’s viral load to an undetectable level, patients today are still reluctant to inform their employers for fear of being fired. The same stigmas which prevented people of marginalized communities from receiving care for HIV/AIDS in the 1980s at Duke still affect people in our communities today. Providers are willing to work with them, but patients are still reluctant to come out and receive help; according to her, this makes outreach and education efforts the most important future direction for HIV/AIDS.
Full Interview Audio:
Interview Topic Log
00:01 Introductions 00:42 Early activist influence from parents 01:38 Volunteering at the Edgemont Community Center; becoming more familiar with impoverished communities 05:25 Activism of the 60s; involvement with movements; idealism 08:49 Friend with AIDS, Jeffrey Wayne Davies; early treatment of AIDS complications; palliative care 13:35 Fear in the gay community; no fear for caring for him 15:29 Vulnerability of the LGBTQ community to diseases and stigmatization 19:33 Expressing interest to working at Duke, while still working at Durham County General Hospital; Anthony Adinolfi, Dani Bolognesi, David Durack 21:50 Working at the Durham County DSS, Adult Protective Services; holes in community services for mentally ill people 25:11 Referrals to John Umstead Hospital, sympathy for patients; work at Durham County General neurology and neurosurgery; difficult advocacy work 30:07 Reactions from others about working in Duke AIDS clinic; doing work for nurses who were afraid at Durham County General Hospital 32:32 Early negative reputation of John Bartlett’s HIV/AIDS clinic 35:22 Patient reactions to discriminatory comments and slurs 36:35 Navigating stigma with patients; talking openly about sex; combating shame 41:41 Understanding the source of the stigma, lack of sympathy for HIV/AIDS patients 42:48 Mindset among healthcare workers; change in mindset over time 45:50 Comparing previous social work with new position at Duke; wide-reaching responsibility for patients; first North Carolina AIDS Advisory Council in 1988 49:53 The three H’s; first HIV blood test in 1985 51:05 Typical day of work in John Bartlett’s clinic; home care versus hospital care for patients near end-of-life; difficult time working with home health agencies; patient social work assessments in the clinic 58:35 Feeling lucky to be able to advocate for communities that she did not belong to; resistant from religious communities; metaphor about sex work; engagement with drug user community 1:03:18 Going to work feeling like going to war 1:04:44 Persuading community organizations to provide services for HIV/AIDS patients; health departments; Four-H youth organizations; anecdote about speaking in daughter’s second grade class about AIDS 1:12:45 Work always on her mind, always talking about it; friends’ boredom 1:14:13 Changing demographics of HIV/AIDS in early 1990s; resistance from black women; going anywhere that she needed to go, even unsafe places 1:19:29 Comfort and confidence in herself for building trust with HIV/AIDS patients 1:21:57 Misunderstandings of patients; astonishing social circumstances; deaf patients; patients who were murderers; patients who were outcasted, rejected, by their parents 1:31:21 Group therapy for the clinic staff 1:33:09 Memorable, admirable moments of John Bartlett and Anthony Adinolfi; cheerleaders for each other 1:36:55 Progress in eliminating stigmas and social barriers for HIV/AIDS; legal clinic in 1990, work with North Carolina Central University’s health education program; lingering stigma towards gay black men; current broken healthcare system 1:44:53 Reflections on career
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