|
The Healthy Living Project, an intervention designed and evaluated by
a multi-Center research team that included
the HIV Center, has been
chosen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
for inclusion in
The 2008 Compendium of Evidence-based HIV
Prevention Interventions. CDC, the U.S. Government’s lead agency
for
 HIV
prevention in the US, identifies programs that have proven to
effect behavior change -- particularly decreasing sexual risk
behavior -- and updates The Compendium annually. To be included,
programs must be scientifically proven to reduce HIV or
STD-related risk behaviors, or promote safer behaviors. The 2008
Compendium is a single source of information that informs state
and local HIV prevention programs about what works for
preventing HIV infections and includes a total of 57
interventions. The Healthy Living Project, which is formally titled Health
Related Interventions for Persons Living with HIV, is one of
eight interventions that have been added this year. The
program was developed as part of an NIMH-sponsored multi-site collaboration
among the HIV Center and colleagues from UCLA, UCSF, and the
Medical College of Wisconsin. Key team members at the HIV Center
included Susan Tross,
Ph.D., Robert
Remien Ph.D.,
Theresa Exner, Ph.D., and
Jacqueline
Correale, M.A.
"More than 25 years in to the AIDS epidemic, HIV prevention
remains a critical need. Biomedical advances have made enormous
strides in treating HIV infection, but not yet in preventing new
cases and certainly not in curing those who are already
infected,” noted Anke
A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D., Director of the HIV Center and the
Principal Investigator of the study site in New York. “The
challenges of helping HIV-positive individuals to cope with HIV
infection, to adopt healthier lifestyles, and to prevent further
transmission are enormous and urgent. The inclusion of the
Health Living Project in this CDC compendium means that it has
been recognized as among the strongest HIV behavioral
interventions in the literature to date and that it has been
rigorously evaluated and has demonstrated efficacy."
Healthy Living is a three-module/15-session intervention
that is delivered one-on-one to people living with HIV. Each of
the three modules consists of five sessions, and each is
designed to improve quality of life in a different broad area
of health: physical, mental, and sexual. [continued] |
More specifically, the modules focus on developing positive
strategies for managing symptoms of depression, anxiety,
complex medication regimens, injection drug use, and sexual
risk behavior in order to avoid unwanted consequences for
themselves, their friends, families, and partners.
Module 1 (stress, coping, and adjustment), focuses on quality
of life, psychologic coping, and achieving positive affect and
supportive social relationships. Module 2 (safer behaviors),
centers on self-regulatory issues, such as avoiding risky sexual
and drug use behavior. Module 3 (health behaviors), addresses
accessing health services, adherence, and active participation
in medical care decision making. Sessions have a standard
structure and set of activities that are tailored to the
individual participant. Psychoeducation, skills-building
exercises, and cognitive-behavioral techniques (trigger
identification, problem solving, and goal setting) are included
in each session so the participant can use these skills
independently to effectively meet challenges in their daily
lives.
Because The Healthy Living Project has been included in CDC’s
2008 Compendium, those who are providing services –
local health departments, community based organizations,
small non-profits – will all have access to information about
this highly efficacious intervention. “This mark of distinction
will encourage the adoption of the intervention by state and
local health departments, health-care facilities,
community-based organizations, and others," noted Dr. Ehrhardt.
The Healthy Living Project
now stands alongside another major HIV Center intervention
singled out by CDC, Project FIO (Future Is Ours.
PI: Anke A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D.), which is a group-based intervention focused
on the realities of women's lives and their relationships with
men. The HIV Center has been funded to carry out two new
diffusion efforts with Project FIO.
 In one of the Project FIO diffusion initiatives, Center investigators
Susie Hoffman,
Dr.P.H., Jessica Adams-Skinner, Ed.D., and
Theresa Exner, Ph.D.
are working with the Women's Prison Association to train
them to present Project FIO for groups of women recently released from
incarceration. For the other initiative, Center investigators, along with
Public Health Solutions (PHS), have been funded by the CDC to reformat and package Project FIO as part
of an effort to disseminate the program to community-based
organizations and clinics that serve women in family planning
clinics who are at the highest risk of acquiring HIV infection.
Drs. Hoffman and Adams-Skinner will be collaborating with PHS
investigators Jeff Natt, M.P.H., Mary Anne Chiasson, Dr.P.H.,
and Pam Farquhar. |
