Welcome to the MyLifeMyMind Self-Assessment

Quality of life and brain health have emerged as an important concern for persons aging with HIV. We have been studying both issues for over ten years. We want to share with you what we have learned about improving quality of life and protecting brain health.

Heads up! You can do a lot to feel better and protect your memory and concentration!

The first step is a self-assessment. This only takes a few minutes. We’ll ask you about yourself, your health, your lifestyle, and the presence of certain symptoms and medical conditions that are most important for quality of life and brain health.

You can skip any question that you would rather not answer. In answering the questions, think about how things have been in the past two months. When the assessment is complete you will receive your health report right away.

Your cognition will be assessed in two ways. We’ll ask you questions about the difficulties you encounter with your memory and thinking in everyday life. You will also be offered a computerized cognitive test – of course, this is totally optional, but people living with HIV, like you, have asked for this information.

We do not store any of your health information. Once you have left the program, this information can no longer be retrieved.

Once you have completed the self-assessment, you will automatically be presented with a Health Report showing all your answers and the potential impact of each symptom or health condition on your quality of life or brain health, using a coloured square next to each answer:

• Green = Very good, no problem here!
• Yellow = It’s worth paying attention to, consider consulting the relevant information.
• Red = There’s room for improvement, it could have an impact on your quality of life.

If you’re like most people, you’ll get at least a few answers with a red square! Most of us have more than one area that could benefit from attention. But the reality is that we only have limited time and energy, and we can’t deal with everything at once. We invite you to choose one thing you want to improve by adopting a new behaviour. You can choose what might have the biggest impact on what’s most important to you, or what seems easiest to change. By working on one thing at a time, you increase your chances of success.

If the change you need to make seems daunting, don’t worry. We’ll guide you along the way.
Once you’ve chosen the symptom or health condition you want to improve, go to the Self-Management Resources section onf our website. You’ll find quality resources that will help you adopt a new behaviour to improve your quality of life, enhance your cognition or protect your brain in the future.

For each symptom and health condition, our website contains information on:

• the reasons for the presence of this symptom, including , health conditions, medications, and psychological or social factors that may contribute to the presence of this symptom;
• the extent to which it is likely to impact your quality of life or put your brain at risk; and
• high-quality self-management resources you can use to improve the situation.

Take the time to examine the information relating to each red zone, and perhaps yellow too. As you review the information, keep in mind what is most important to you in your life and to what extent it is possible to implement the changes discussed in the self-management resources.

To help improve the area you want to focus on, we offer one or more free, high-quality self-management resources. These may be programs available online or books you can borrow from the library. There are lots and lots of self-management resources out there, but they are not all good! We’ve selected some high-quality resources for you, and in some cases, when we weren’t satisfied with anything, we’ve developed them ourselves. Choose the ones that interest you. They are available on our website as supplementary material.