Counselling Centre’s Response to the Interview Transcript with Sue

A response to Understanding Society: Full Interview Transcript with Sue

By Dr. Ann-Marie Lew and colleagues
Counselling Centre
University Health, Wellness and Counselling Centre (UHWC)
National University of Singapore

There is clearly pain beneath this woman’s hypersexual behaviours. She was victimized by peers when she was younger, and is now driven to engage in dangerous behaviours in a possible attempt to be in control and to have power. At the same time, she feels spiritually empty and experiences much self-loathing.

As a team, we are very concerned about this woman’s well-being, and that of the people who may be infected by her. We think it most important that she be assisted in getting professional help to both manage her medical condition and to learn healthier ways to cope with her past and her pain, and to stop hurting herself and others.

Health professionals and other individuals who can help her would be doctors, counsellors, and trained specialist volunteers.

For screening and referrals, the Action for Aids group in Singapore offers Anonymous HIV Testing and Post-testing Counselling, as well as support groups (http://www.afa.org.sg/home.asp; Tel: 62540212).

The DSC (Department of Sexually Transmitted Infections Control) Clinic in Singapore offers medical screening and treatment for individuals suffering from sexually transmitted diseases (http://dsc-sexualhealth.com.sg/index.php; Tel: 1800 2521324).

The Communicable Diseases Centre in Singapore offers medical treatment for individuals suffering from HIV-AIDS (Tel: 6357 7900, 6357 7909).

On-campus, the University Health, Wellness, and Counselling Centre provides assistance to NUS students and staff through its two divisions, the University Health Service (Tel: 6776 1631) and the Counselling Centre (counselling@nus.edu.sg; Tel: 6516-2376).

We would also like to remind readers that, while it is true that hypersexual behaviours increase the risk of an individual contracting HIV-AIDS and STDs, HIV can also be transmitted by exposure to infected blood through transfusions, sharing needles to inject drugs, or from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth, or while breastfeeding.

It is important not to stigmatize and discriminate HIV-AIDS sufferers, and our team would like to introduce the website http://www.avert.org/aidsstigma.htm for readers to obtain more information about HIV-AIDS stigma and discrimination.