Patricia Bartlett Oral History Interview, 2024

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Summary

Creator:
Bartlett, Patricia
Abstract:
Patricia Bartlett, a clinical social worker, worked with HIV/AIDS patients in Durham, North Carolina, in the early 1980s at Durham County Regional Hospital (now Duke Regional Hospital). In 1988, she began working with Dr. John A. Bartlett's clinic on the Reynolds grant, which aimed to produce research comparing healthcare costs between home care and hospital care for dying AIDS patients. Her fearlessness and general familiarity with governmental bureaucracy became a lifeline for the AIDS patients at Duke. This collection contains 1 oral history interview conducted on January 29, 2024 by Anthony Zhao as part of the Bass Connections Agents of Change Oral History Project. In the interview, Bartlett discusses her care for a friend with AIDS in the early 1980s; her activism for patients not only at Duke, but also Durham County General Hospital; the negative reputation of John Bartlett's HIV/AIDS clinic at Duke; the extensive resistance she met from community organizations; and memorable experiences with patients at Duke. The themes of this interview include stigmatization and discrimination, community activism, health education, and patient advocacy.
Extent:
1 interview (1 transcript) and 1.20 GB
Collection ID:
OH.BARTLETTP

Background

Scope and content:

Includes 1 oral history interview with Patricia Bartlett conducted on January 29, 2024 by Anthony Zhao as part of the Bass Connections Agents of Change Oral History Project.

In the January 29, 2024 interview, Bartlett discusses her care for a friend with AIDS in the early 1980s; her activism for patients not only at Duke, but also Durham County General Hospital; the negative reputation of John Bartlett's HIV/AIDS clinic at Duke; the extensive resistance she met from community organizations; and memorable experiences with patients at Duke. The themes of this interview include stigmatization and discrimination, community activism, health education, and patient advocacy.

Biographical / historical:

Patricia Bartlett was raised in Durham, North Carolina. Her father was a professor of American History at Duke University, and her mother, before she had children, was hired by Dr. Eugene Stead to be Duke's director of social work. She attended Duke University for her BA degree before moving to Boston and receiving a master's in social work from Boston University in 1973. While she was working for the Durham Country Department of Social Services, a very close friend was infected with AIDS in New York City. She took care of him throughout 1981 to 1982 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 A. 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 worked at the Durham County Regional Hospital (now Duke Regional Hospital) as a social worker, and her fearlessness and general familiarity with governmental bureaucracy became a vital skill for the AIDS patients at Duke. This new position at Duke was incredibly demanding: she met HIV/AIDS patients in the clinic, while constantly "working to have as many services as [she] could garner, outpatient [ones], because most patients wanted to die at home, and that meant...incorporating the religious community, the public health community, people at the North Carolina level to support services in the community." As successful management of HIV/AIDS became widespread in the United States, Bartlett began visiting Tanzania with her husband, John, 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, according to her: "in the black community, men who have sex with men is still a difficult topic for both parents and friends...." Providers are willing to work with them, but those 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. "It's been a privilege for me. I never looked back," said Bartlett, at the end of the interview.

Bartlett worked at Duke for over 30 years. She retired in 2018.

Acquisition information:
Accession A2024.059 (transferred by Rebecca Williams, May 2024)
Processing information:

Processed by Lucy Waldrop: September 2024

Arrangement:
Organized into the following series: Interview, January 29, 2024.
Rules or conventions:
DACS

Contents

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Restrictions:

None.

Terms of access:

Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Patricia Bartlett Oral History Interview, Duke University Medical Center Archives.