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Abstract #149176

Corrine E. Munoz-Plaza, MPH¹, Shiela M. Strauss, PhD¹, Janetta Astone-Twerell, PhD¹, Don Des Jarlais, PhD², Marya Gwadz, PhD, Holly Hagan, PhD⁴, Andrew Osborne, MS⁵, and Andrew Rosenblum, PhD¹. (1) Institute for Treatment Services Research, National Development & Research Institutes, 71 West 23rd Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10010, 212.845.4537, munoz-plaza@ndri.org, (2) Chemical Dependency Institute, Beth Israel Medical Center, First Avenue at 16th Street, New York, NY 10003, (3) Center for Drug Use & HIV Research, National Development & Research Institutes, 71 West 23rd Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10010, (4) Training Institute, National Development & Research Institutes, 71 West 23rd Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10010

Individuals with a history of injecting drugs experience the highest risk of contracting HCV, a blood-borne viral infection. Therefore, staff at drug treatment programs are ideally positioned to deliver HCV-related services to their patients. Because research indicates that there are gaps in staffs' HCV knowledge at these programs, the authors implemented a training that aims to improve staff's understanding of HCV and their ability to communicate this knowledge to their patients. From 2006 – 2007, 102 staff participated in audio-taped individual or group interviews after they attended the training, and analyses of these interviews examined whether and how they had changed their approaches to working with patients to address HCV. Many staff said that they were more comfortable talking to patients about HCV post-training, and they provided examples of how their increased confidence has translated into changes in their practices. For instance, some counseling staff said that they now spend more time answering their patients' HCV-related questions directly, as opposed to referring them immediately to medical staff at the program. Other staff described how they now proactively initiate conversations about HCV with their patients during individual counseling sessions, rather than waiting for a patient to raise questions. Several staff who guide small group counseling/education sessions reported that the training motivated them to incorporate HCV into their work plans for these groups. Our findings suggest that a targeted HCV staff training may help drug treatment providers feel more comfortable and proactive in addressing their patients' HCV-related needs.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the primary risk factor for the transmission of the hepatitis C virus.
• Identify one reason why HCV-positive drug users may not receive optimal education services from staff at drug treatment programs.
• Describe two components of the HCV training targeting staff at drug treatment programs that are described in this research.

Keywords: Hepatitis C, Drug Abuse Treatment

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.