Let's Chat

Investigators: Seth C. Kalichman

Let’s Chat is a four-session intervention designed for use with same-sex groups of adults with chronic mental illness. Based on the Information-Motivation-Behavioral (IMB) Skills Model, Let’s Chat addresses risk-reduction needs specific to persons with mental illness. In each of the 90-minute sessions, a team of two facilitators conveys important AIDS-prevention information, alternating lectures and video clips with role-play and group-participation activities. Participants discuss sexual pressure and coercion, practice negotiating condom use, and learn the proper method for using both male and female condoms. All four sessions place emphasis on clear, simple messages and useful skills practice. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Project SMART: AIDS Education for Drug Users in Short-Term Treatment

Investigators: Benjamin Lewis

Developed for use in short-term in-patient drug treatment programs, Project SMART includes two distinct interventions: a two-session informational intervention and a six-session enhanced intervention that includes both informational and behavioral skills training. A trained health educator delivers both interventions. In the informational intervention, participants receive an overview presentation about AIDS, complete homework, and watch condom-use and works-cleaning demonstrations. In the enhanced intervention, participants also participate in role-plays, watch video presentations, and practice condom-use and works-cleaning skills. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Turning Point

Investigators: Russel S. Falck, Robert G. Carlson, & Harvey A. Siegal

Turning Point includes two separate interventions designed to reduce the frequency and probability of injection-risk behavior among IDUs not participating in drug abuse treatment programs. The basic intervention consists of two sessions. In the first session, participants undergo HIV antibody tests and receive pre-test counseling. In the second session, a counselor-educator provides detailed information about HIV and HIV transmission and guides the participant group through activities intended to teach behavioral strategies for avoiding exposure to HIV. Participants in the enhanced intervention complete the basic intervention and attend three additional sessions, in which they address HIV/AIDS pathology, drug addiction, and safer sex practices. Both interventions employ videotape presentations, role-play, hands-on demonstrations, and print materials. The enhanced intervention also employs slide presentations, self-assessment tests, and lecture/discussion. The program's effectiveness was evaluated in Dayton and Columbus, OH. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two interventions. Surveys were administered to both groups at enrollment and six months after the intervention. A majority of participants in both the standard and enhanced interventions reported safer needle practices at follow-up. Although no difference in needle risk was observed between intervention groups when all subjects were included in analyses, participants in the enhanced intervention who reported unsafe needle practices at enrollment were significantly more likely to report safer needle practices at follow-up than similar participants in the standard intervention (Siegal, Falck, Carlson and Wang, 1995). Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Multimedia WiLLOW Training Modules

Investigators: Lucy Baden & Josefina J. Card

These multimedia, interactive training modules will help you train for and implement the intervention Multimedia WiLLOW: HIV Transmission Reduction Among African American Women Living with HIV. Multimedia WILLOW in an interactive computer-based intervention designed for African American women living with HIV that is gender relevant and culturally sensitive, based on the effective group intervention WiLLOW. The intervention incorporates elements of sexual risk reduction to reduce STI/HIV sexual transmission and to enhance psychosocial mediators and structural factors associated with preventive behaviors. The Multimedia WiLLOW training contains 6 modules, and covers important information and skills for administrators and facilitators. The modules contain videos, quizzes, and interactive learning exercises. Over the course of the training, the modules cover topics such as: program background and information; the original implementation(s) of the program; benefits and challenges of computer-delivered interventions; and other uses of the program.

Project SAFE: Sexual Awareness For Everyone An Intervention to Prevent STDs Among Minority Women

Investigators: Rochelle N. Shain, Reyes Ramos, Sondra T. Perdue, & Edward R. Newton

Developed for use in public health clinics, PROJECT S.A.F.E. is a three session cognitive-behavioral intervention designed to reduce STD infections among Hispanic and African American women. Sessions are designed to facilitate skill development to avoid infections while increasing awareness that STDs (including AIDS) disproportionately affect minority women. The intervention also helps build decision-making and communication skills, and encourages participants to set risk reduction goals. Participants gain mastery through role-play, group discussion, and behavioral skills exercises. The original evaluation, conducted in metropolitan San Antonio, TX, between 1993 and 1994, included 617 Hispanic and African American women. Participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (n=313) or the control group (n=304). Intervention group participants took part in three small-group sessions while their control group counterparts received standard STD counseling. Program participants showed a lower rate of infection as well as a better understanding of risky sexual behavior as compared to the control group. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Brother to Brother

Investigators: John L. Peterson, Thomas J. Coates, Joseph Catania, Walter W. Hauck, Michael Acree, Dennis Daigle, Bobby Hillard, Lee Middleton, & Norman Hearst

Brother to Brother is a three-session behavioral intervention aimed at reducing HIV infection among African-American gay and bisexual men. Sessions are designed to foster positive identity development, educate participants about HIV/AIDS risk, teach assertiveness, and encourage the sharing of commitments and strategies for risk reduction among group members. Participants gain mastery through role-play, group discussion, and behavioral skills exercises. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

HoMBReS: Hombres Manteniendo Bienestar y Relaciones Saludables (Men Maintaining Wellbeing and Healthy Relationships)

Investigators: Scott D. Rhodes, PhD, MPH, CHES, Kenneth C. Hergenrather, PhD, MSEd, MRC, Fred R. Bloom, PhD, Jami S. Leichliter, PhD, Jaime Montano

HoMBReS is a lay health advisor (LHA), community-based, behavioral intervention that aims to increase condom use and HIV testing among Latino men by working with sports teams. Each team selects a leader to serve as an LHA, known as a Navegante (Navigator or Health Navigator), who receives a 4-session, 16-hour training from the HoMBReS facilitator in order to become a health advisor, opinion leader, and community advocate. He may then provide his teammates with information and referrals to increase their knowledge about HIV and STI transmission, prevention, and testing, and increase their condom use skills. In addition, the Navegantes advocate positive and reframe negative sociocultural expectations about what it means to be a man, and they work toward structural changes in their communities. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Study to Reduce Intravenous Exposures (STRIVE)

Investigators: Steffanie Strathdee, Ph.D., Sebastian Booner, Ph.D., Elizabeth Golub, Ph.D., Mary Latka, M.P.H., Ph.D., Farzana Kapadia, Ph.D., Holly Hagan, M.P.H., Ph.D., Jennifer Campbell, & Richard Garfein, Ph.D., M.P.H

STRIVE is a group-level, clinic-based, behavioral intervention that aims to reduce risky distributive injection practices (e.g., syringe lending and unsafe drug preparation) among young injection drug users who are HCV positive. During six 2-hour sessions, two trained health advisors promote group cohesion and support peer education within the STRIVE group. The health advisors encourage behavior change by teaching peer-education tactics and risk reduction skills. The STRIVE program increases participants. HCV knowledge and risk awareness, problem-solving and risk-reduction skills, and supports sustained behavior change. The effectiveness of the STRIVE program was evaluated using a randomized trial design with a time-equivalent attention-control group. Participants included 418 HCV-positive injection drug users aged 18 to 35 years in three US cities. Participants reported their injection-related behaviors at baseline, and at three- and six-month follow-ups. Compared with the control group, intervention group participants reported a 26% relative reduction of distributive risk behaviors at three months and six months, but were no more likely to cite their HIV-positive status as a reason for refraining from syringe lending. Effects were strongest among intervention group participants who had known their HCV-positive status for at least six months. Peer mentoring and self-efficacy were significantly increased among intervention group participants, and intervention effects were mediated through self-efficacy. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Holistic Health Recovery Program for Injection Drug Users Living with HIV (HHRP+)

Investigators: S. Kelly Avants, PhD, Arthur Margolin, PhD, Lara A. Warburton, PhD, Keith A. Hawkins, PsyD, Julia Shi, MD

HOLISTIC HEALTH RECOVERY PROGRAM FOR INJECTION DRUG USERS LIVING WITH HIV is a 12-session, manual-guided, group therapy intervention delivered over six weeks. This risk reduction and health promotion intervention is appropriate for use with drug users in a substance abuse treatment program, and it was designed to specifically address the special needs of HIV-positive injection drug users (IDUs). HHRP+ is based on the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) model of HIV prevention through behavioral change and uses cognitive remediation components to facilitate learning and retention of IMB treatment components. The primary goals of this intervention are harm reduction, health promotion, and improved quality of life. More specific objectives include abstinence from illicit drug use or from sexual risk behaviors, reduced risk for HIV transmission, reduced drug use, and improved medical, psychological, and social functioning. The HHRP+ program includes session topics such as: reaching your goals; health care participation; reducing the harm of injection drug use; harm reduction with latex; negotiating harm reduction with partners; preventing relapse to risky behavior; healthy lifestyle choices; introduction to the 12-steps; overcoming stigma; motivation for change; moving beyond grief; and healthy social relationships and activities. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Multimedia WiLLOW: HIV Transmission Reduction Among African American Women Living with HIV

Investigators: Josefina J. Card, Amie Ashcraft, John Wundes, Nikia Braxton, Gina Wingood, & Ralph DiClemente

Multimedia WILLOW in an interactive computer-based intervention designed for African American women living with HIV that is gender relevant and culturally sensitive, based on the effective group intervention WiLLOW. The intervention incorporates elements of sexual risk reduction to reduce STI/HIV sexual transmission and to enhance psychosocial mediators and structural factors associated with preventive behaviors. Designed for implementation in clinical or community-based settings, the two-session interactive, intervention emphasizes ethnic and gender pride, elements of sexual risk reduction, sexual negotiation skills, proper condom use, and development of partner norms supportive of consistent condom use. Each session offers multimedia learning, games and quizzes to help viewers increase and reinforce their risk-reduction awareness, knowledge, and skills. Women interact with the computer-based intervention individually and at their own speed. Only minimal staff participation is needed to implement Multimedia WiLLOW. A recent study demonstrated the efficacy of Multimedia WiLLOW. The evaluation study (N=168) used a randomized controlled design to examine Multimedia WILLOW.s efficacy by assessing participants. Multimedia WILLOW participants, compared to the control condition, had a significantly higher percentage of condom protected sex acts in the past 30 days (90% vs. 80%, p=.001). This greater condom use occurred with both HIV-negative (90% vs. 80%, p=.037) and HIV-positive (100% v. 70%, P=.011) partners. Women receiving Multimedia WILLOW were also more likely to report 100% condom use (OR = .10; p=.003) and had a lower adjusted mean number of unprotected vaginal and anal sex acts in the past 30 days (.31 vs. 2.33, P=.002). In comparison to women in the control condition, Multimedia WILLOW participants reported significantly higher levels of communication with their partners on HIV risk reduction practices (11.5 vs. 10.8, p=.052); greater sexual communication self-efficacy (36.1 vs. 34.0, p=.003); and less self-reported stress (32.3 vs. 34.3, p=.003). Participants rated the computer-delivered intervention more favorably than the standard of care condition in the four principal satisfaction categories -- enjoyment (4.69 v. 4.26, p