5070.0: Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - Board 5

Abstract #3321

Utilizing Adult Education in an HIV Prevention Outreach Training for Drug Users

Susan G. Sherman, PhD and Carl A. Latkin, PhD. Department of Health, Policy, and Management, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, (410) 502-5368, ssherman@jhsph.edu

Well designed trainings are vital to effective interventions in research and practice. Although intervention evaluations are often discussed in the HIV/AIDS literature and a part of many community based programs, the design process is not readily available in either academic journals or community-based venues. This presentation will discuss key aspects of designing an HIV prevention outreach training for drug users, including: (1) developing a committee comprised of different stakeholders (researchers, facilitators, drug users); (2) the decision making process about training content and form; (3) how to incorporate information from the pilots; and (4) including participants' experiences into the training. Adult education techniques, such as games, role plays, and experiential exercises will be discussed. Components of the qualitative evaluation will be presented to demonstrate participants' responses to the training and outreach in their community. The 10-session training was designed for the SHIELD (Self-Help in Eliminating life Threatening Diseases) project, a random assignment intervention study with an experimental and control condition. SHIELD was designed to empirically examine social processes, such as peer influence and its relationship to HIV-risk behaviors among Baltimore city drug users.

Learning Objectives: 1. To discuss key components of developing an adult education training. 2. To discuss key components of piloting an adult education training. 3. To learn about ways to incorporate creative games in an educational training. 4. To identify tools to incorporate participants' lives and experiences into the training. 4. To learn about working with an eclectic group of stakeholders (researchres, training facilitators, members of the target community) in developing an intervention

Keywords: Health Education, HIV Interventions

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

The 128th Annual Meeting of APHA