Participants understood and had observed that community support services changed quickly in terms of contact details, type of services provided, costs, eligibility, access, and availability.
Secondly, outreach must address issues of eligibility and accessibility.
The research team then contacted consenting dyads to confirm their eligibility and determine their availability for a local focus group, or negotiate a convenient time for an interview.
At the state level, policy decisions are made with regard to eligibility, extent of the supply and availability of services, allocation of services and benefits, scope and quality of services, including health and safety standards.
Eligibility depends on the size,type and availability of funds from other sources.
With regard to policy and regulation, a number of countries had set criteria for eligibility; while several took the financial situation and availability of informal care into account, others did not do so.
We received about 200 enquiries regarding the study, with 87 individuals filling in a screening questionnaire assessing eligibility criteria including recent blood pressure readings and availability for the 6-month study.
Trained RAs spoke to interested participants by phone, assessed eligibility and scheduled focus groups around participant availability.
Other eligibility criteria considered were consent of the parents and respondents to participate in the study and availability as at the time of the survey.
Eligibility criteria included age above 18 years, current exposure to ARV therapy at time of sampling and availability of all clinical, laboratory (CD4+ T-cell counts and HIV viral load) and treatment histories.
